If you have a claim pending before the Department of Veterans Affairs or if you are thinking about filing a claim there are a few things you should know.
1. It will take up to and in some cases more than 10 years before your claim is finally settled.
2. The Department of Veterans Affairs is programmed to deny your claim.
3. Your National Veterans' Service Officer is working for the DVA and against you.
4. The Adjudications Officers as well as Members of the Board of Veterans Appeals are paid bonuses for saving the Government money. (By removing vital evidence from Veteran's Claims folders)
5. The Board of Veterans Appeals members are paid an additional bonuses based upon the number of cases they handle every year which is payable once every other year. So they hold back and remand as many cases they can in their non bonus years so they can claim them for bonus points in their bonus years and are then able to collect a bonus check at the end of the fiscal year.
6. The DVA treats DVA Regulations as if they were Law. (They are not law)
Unless there is a problem at the DVA's Regional Office you will get a personal hearing within 6 to 8 months after you file your claim. The Adjudications Officers like to get your claim in the system as soon as they can. Do Not Be Mislead This is when the fun begins. After the Adjudications Officer has sat on your claim for about a year to a year and a half he or she will deny it which means you will then have to file a Notice of Disagreement and your claim will then go to the Board of Veterans Appeals. The Board of Veterans Appeals will sit on it for another year to 2 years before they will remand it back to the Regional Office for more information. The Regional Office will then send you a letter stating what additional information is being requested and ask you to submit this information back to the Regional Office. The Regional Office will then sit on your claim for another couple of months or years before sending your claim back up to the Board of Veterans Appeals. Now a case can be remanded back and forth like this for as long as the Board Members are able to collect their bonuses money off of your claim. Once the Board Members have gained all of the bonus money they can off of your claim they will either deny you claim or grant it. If they deny your claim you will be asked to file an appeal to the Court of Veterans Appeals. Here again the court will sit on your claim for another 6 months to 2 years depending on how many cases the Court has pending. Now the Court can and in a lot of cases does remand your case back to the Board of Veterans Appeals which again will remand it back to the Regional Office where it all starts over again. Or the Court will either reverse the Board's decision which means that the case is settled and you will receive your additional rating and your money or else it will uphold the board's decision and you will be asked to file another appeal to the Court of Federal Appeals and so forth and so on right up to the Supreme Court. What ever you do, do not give up hope. The longer it takes to finally settle your claim the more money you will receive in one lump sum.
You must remember that at every step of the way your case can be remanded back down the chain to the regional office and have to start all over again. Even if it goes to the U. S. Supreme Court.
We are trying to change this in two ways. First we have a suite against the DVA pending in the Federal Courts in which we will prove that our Service-Connected Disability Compensations are a legal liability of the United States. Second we have a document for you to submit to the DVA in support of your claim.
This document is backed up by actual court decisions and the Law. It tells the DVA that it must grant you your Service- Connected Disability Rating with no ifs, ands, or buts, about it. It further tells the DVA that it must pay you back to the period of the injury or condition occurred. That is to say your date of discharge regardless of the amount of time which has passed.
If you wish to see a copy of this document click HERE.
If you like what you have read and you want to submit a copy to the DVA on your behalf copy the form letter to your word processor and replace the personal information on it with your name, address (street, city, state, and zip code), your DVA File number or Social Security Number(whichever the DVA uses to identify you),your branch of service, and the address of the DVA regional Office which has your file. This information is necessary for Department to process your application for disability compensation Therefore you will need to make 2 copies; one for the DVA and one for your own files. Remember the DVA looses, throws away and destroys claims documents so they can prolong your case. So make sure that you keep your copy in a safe place. If you loose your copy and the DVA looses theirs you can make another copy from this website and replace all of the personal information again.
In the Gardner case the Supreme Court ruled First that Service-Connection is presumed under the Law and second that the DVA must abide by the Law regardless of DVA regulations and/or DVA interpretations of the Law.
One very important fact that we must all remember is that no lower Court has the authority to overturn a Supreme Court Ruling. Only the Supreme Court itself may overturn one of it own decisions. In spite of the fact that the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Veterans Service Organizations want us to believe differently. This includes Nehmer vs. U.S. Vet Admin., in which a California District Court ruled against the Gardner decision. As much as the District Court Judge, the DVA and the NVSO’s would like for us to believe this case overturned Gardner a District Court Judge simply does not have the authority to overturn a Supreme Court decision.
The only way a Supreme Court decision can be overturned is for the Supreme Court to overturn it. Therefore since the Supreme Court never overturned Gardner it is still a solid case on which we may stand in forcing the DVA to grant us our Disability Compensations.
The following is a e-mail we received from one of our members who had an outside organization to represent him before the Board of Veterans Appeals. We need to hear from other who have also used the "Letter in Support of My Claim" against the DVA so we can help them keep track of their claims and to apply the proper amount of pressure and the proper time on the DVA.
Subject: Appeal Hearing
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1999 18:34:19 -0500
From: Al Lang
To: Veterans’ Rights NOW
JAN 5, 1999
I went to Winston Salem, North Carolina for a hearing before the Board of Veterans Appeals on appeal for the DVA turning down my claim for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The hearing started at 1:00 PM EST and I gave the DVA people my new paper work to the Board of Veterans Appeals, a document from my doctor and the "Letter in Support of my Claim" I had gotten from Veterans’ Rights NOW, showing how so many claims had been over turned by the Courts because the VA was wrong. Now that will be made part of my File and it is felt by the Organization that helped me with it. That there is no way for the VA to deny it this time. But there is always that chance they will so now I just wait and see.
My wife was there and she made her feeling known. She stated that we are still together and that we were apart for a while because of the PTSD. I feel that it helped my case also.
The hearing ended at 1:35 PM EST. I was told I would hear from the Board as soon as they made a decision.
Please note that we have created a Letter of Disagreement for you to use if you have received a denial using this section of Chapter 38 USC. All you need to do is to replace your personal information where indicated and submit it to the DVA.
Also we apologize for any and all misunderstandings. We did expect the DVA to come back at us with another section of Title 38 which lists the conditions under which Service-Connection can be granted. They pulled this one out of hiding. This law is contrary to both Section 1110 and the Supreme Court ruling in the Gardner case which basically means that it is of no use to the DVA as a reason for denying a Veteran’s claim for Service-Connection. Therefore we strongly urge everyone who has been denied their Service-Connection using this law to make a copy of our Letter of Disagreement and to submit it to the DVA.
If you have been granted a Compensation and you would like to receive Back Pay to the time of your discharge from the United States Armed Forces then go to Back Pay
