ramifications of switching lawyers in middle of appeals?

[Ufrustrated2]

my appeals claim has been sent up to BVA this year. it had gotten lost for like a year at DRO or filed wrong, something like that they said. even with the RAMP we're now over two+ years for this appeal. so much for fast track.  lawyer had to write a scathing note to DRO for their non-sensical judgement. DRO wouldn't even acknowledge civilian imo's. so he got it sent up to BVA.  

i may have asked this before, can't recall. but is it standard for lawyers to get veteran to sign papers so lawyer gets paid by VA for his time whether he wins my case or not?

also, what are the ramifications if a veteran wants to fire current lawyer and switch to a new one if the satisfaction factor is really low regarding current lawyer?

 

 

[broncovet]

BE Prepared to answer a "new" attorney's question: 

"Why did you fire the last attorney?"

If you dont have a great compeling answer to that question, you could well find yourself unrepresented or self represented.  

   Attorney's dont want to invest their time and labor into a case, where the client could fire them, too, and leave the attorney unpaid.  Do you like to work for free?  They dont either.  

   Any "new" attorney will insist on a letter from old attorney withdrawing his representation.  You cant be represented by two attorney's UNLESS the law firms agree to "joint representation".  I have only seen that happen once.  

[MikeR]

This is a very serious thing to undertake. There are no perfect law firms, and often the attorneys have to work with what is in a legal sense. Having a great attorney with experience is huge. I had Chisholm, Chisholm, and Kilpatrick. They were great, but when I appealed the lowball RO decision to the DRO, they wanted to fire me as a client. So I asked them a simple question, “When I win, and I am going to win, do I get to keep the attorney fees?” They called me back in an hour to say that they were staying onboard with me. Had they dropped me, they would have lost $60k. One thing I know  for a fact is that the VA has some poor attorneys. A law degree does not make one intelligent, just an ability to parrot information is needed. I had to write 7 page memorandums to justify making decisions without legal concurrence due to VA attorney incompetence. A good attorney can pick apart a weak legal stance that any agency attorney can make. You need to conduct due diligence when taking one on to represent you.

[Ufrustrated2]

18 hours ago, 63Charlie said:

This obviously indicates your legal representative isn't knowledgeable in all matters VA.

since it had to deal with an appeal to cavc, according to @broncovet, it is normal routine to adjust a fee agreement so it appears.

 

[Ufrustrated2]

13 hours ago, broncovet said:

BE Prepared to answer a "new" attorney's question: 

"Why did you fire the last attorney?"

If you dont have a great compeling answer to that question, you could well find yourself unrepresented or self represented.  

   Attorney's dont want to invest their time and labor into a case, where the client could fire them, too, and leave the attorney unpaid.  Do you like to work for free?  They dont either.  

   Any "new" attorney will insist on a letter from old attorney withdrawing his representation.  You cant be represented by two attorney's UNLESS the law firms agree to "joint representation".  I have only seen that happen once.  

they already asked this. but i was more interested in current attorney completing the current appeals and they would pick up after these appeals is what i told them.  after so much time & va putting my claims in limbo while on ramp, i thought "maybe" a new attorney and they can work these appeals along with new issue we discussed. the RO is certainly jerking us around. probably SOP for all this.

of course not regarding attorney getting paid.

the feedback i'm getting here is that is a bad idea. point taken

[Ufrustrated2]

11 hours ago, MikeR said:

This is a very serious thing to undertake. There are no perfect law firms, and often the attorneys have to work with what is in a legal sense. Having a great attorney with experience is huge. I had Chisholm, Chisholm, and Kilpatrick. They were great, but when I appealed the lowball RO decision to the DRO, they wanted to fire me as a client. So I asked them a simple question, “When I win, and I am going to win, do I get to keep the attorney fees?” They called me back in an hour to say that they were staying onboard with me. Had they dropped me, they would have lost $60k. One thing I know  for a fact is that the VA has some poor attorneys. A law degree does not make one intelligent, just an ability to parrot information is needed. I had to write 7 page memorandums to justify making decisions without legal concurrence due to VA attorney incompetence. A good attorney can pick apart a weak legal stance that any agency attorney can make. You need to conduct due diligence when taking one on to represent you.

i would have appealed that low-ball RO too. which in one sense is what we are doing after the non-sensical ssoc decision written by RO here and has since been moved up to bva.

it is serious as i don't have skills to rep myself.  they may be incompetent but they have the power to put claims in limbo for years+, send back non-sensical decisions and keep the vet bouncing about for years. even good attorney's don't seem to be able to stop that.

[MikeR]

Totally agree with your point. My file collected dust at the BVA for five years. When they released the decision, it would have been comedy gold had someone else’s name been on it. My DAV representative placed me in contact with the attorneys. I got a phone call from the chief attorney at work as he was looking for a file I didn’t have. This VA General Counsel taunted me with the question of if I had an attorney. To which I replied in the affirmative, and he said “Good, I have hundreds!” I asked him why this was adversarial? To which he replied that I was in fact the enemy. My boss overheard the conversation and was very upset. I had to battle with OPM for FERs disability. Same game, different agency.