Posted on Dec 31, 2015
Veterans Gain Support in Fight to Bring Class Actions
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Veterans who have waited more than a year to have disability claims reviewed say they are being denied a right granted to most Americans—the ability to team up and bring class-action lawsuits to fight grievances.
The group filed a lawsuit this year in the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims seeking prompt decisions by the Department of Veterans Affairs for thousands of veterans waiting for benefits, saying the delays are causing financial and medical hardship.
But the veterans’ appeals court, created by Congress in 1988 to hear challenges to initial government decisions on benefit claims, says it isn’t allowed to hear cases that aggregate complaints of many veterans. Instead, it says it can only take up benefits appeals one by one.
Now, as The Wall Street Journal examined today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is considering whether that policy should change to allow class actions in the veterans court.
The Justice Department, which represents Veterans Affairs, is expected to file its position on the issue with the court in January. A spokeswoman for the VA, which has previously said it backs the decision to block class actions, declined to comment on the litigation.
The appeal has garnered attention from veterans groups, law professors, and even former VA lawyers, all of whom have filed briefs to the Federal Circuit in support of allowing class actions in the veterans court.
Veterans who have waited more than a year to have disability claims reviewed say they are being denied a right granted to most Americans—the ability to team up and bring class-action lawsuits to fight grievances.
The group filed a lawsuit this year in the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims seeking prompt decisions by the Department of Veterans Affairs for thousands of veterans waiting for benefits, saying the delays are causing financial and medical hardship.
But the veterans’ appeals court, created by Congress in 1988 to hear challenges to initial government decisions on benefit claims, says it isn’t allowed to hear cases that aggregate complaints of many veterans. Instead, it says it can only take up benefits appeals one by one.
Now, as The Wall Street Journal examined today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is considering whether that policy should change to allow class actions in the veterans court.
The Justice Department, which represents Veterans Affairs, is expected to file its position on the issue with the court in January. A spokeswoman for the VA, which has previously said it backs the decision to block class actions, declined to comment on the litigation.
The appeal has garnered attention from veterans groups, law professors, and even former VA lawyers, all of whom have filed briefs to the Federal Circuit in support of allowing class actions in the veterans court.
Veterans Gain Support in Fight to Bring Class Actions
Posted from blogs.wsj.com
Disability
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
VA Claim
Posted >1 y ago
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Meanwhile, as Veterans wait- they are dying....either by their own hand; or by something the military has caused. I am Not a mental health professional; however, I am the coach of the following group:
http://www.facebook.com/GroupforSuicidalActiveDutyandforSuicidalVeterans
http://www.facebook.com/GroupforSuicidalActiveDutyandforSuicidalVeterans
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This is an interesting issue.
Although we know there are a myriad of issues at the Department of Veterans Affairs, many of them self-inflicted, the claims process itself is established by Law and Regulation.
The Major problem is that the "Burden of Proof" for filing a claim is placed on the Veteran, and the Department, as a "bureaucracy" will default to DENY any time something does not meet that standard.
It is almost a Kafkaesque example of Blackstone's Formulation ""It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer" where "It is far better for ten veterans to suffer than one 'potentially' fraudulent case to be approved"
This is compounded by the "common knowledge" that Military Record-Keeping and our own Bureaucracy is shoddy, lackadaisical, and there is an Institutional Aversion not to seek Medical Aid for Injuries in the line of duty.
If the Regulations & Laws say We (Veterans) must LINK our Injuries to Service, but our Culture and Administrative Structure has forces which are actively preventing that, how do we deconflict that?
The VA is generally doing exactly what it is designed to do. It is taking a "Garbage in, Garbage out" stance like any (computing) machine would, per the Letter of the Law, while ignoring the Spirit of the Law.
This pushes a burden down to individual reviewers and Judges to interpret every individual case... All 6 million Active Patients (of 22M Living Veterans), which is just not feasible.
Class Action Suits however, on its face make sense. But, the VA IS FOLLOWING the Letter of the Law. They are "technically" following the Spirit of the Law as well. It is the DoD (et al) who has created what I dare say a "toxic environment" where service members feel they cannot seek medical treatment for a few reasons (including):
1) Mission comes first.
2) "I can deal with the pain"
3) Admin (even medical admin) takes a backdoor to operations.
4) "If I don't do this, my buddy has to take up my slack"
So although I think the ability to use Class Action Suits may be useful in specific cases (Camp Lejeune Water), it is not going to be a "cure" for the Systemic Issue which actually originates inside the DoD.
CC: SGT (Join to see)
Although we know there are a myriad of issues at the Department of Veterans Affairs, many of them self-inflicted, the claims process itself is established by Law and Regulation.
The Major problem is that the "Burden of Proof" for filing a claim is placed on the Veteran, and the Department, as a "bureaucracy" will default to DENY any time something does not meet that standard.
It is almost a Kafkaesque example of Blackstone's Formulation ""It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer" where "It is far better for ten veterans to suffer than one 'potentially' fraudulent case to be approved"
This is compounded by the "common knowledge" that Military Record-Keeping and our own Bureaucracy is shoddy, lackadaisical, and there is an Institutional Aversion not to seek Medical Aid for Injuries in the line of duty.
If the Regulations & Laws say We (Veterans) must LINK our Injuries to Service, but our Culture and Administrative Structure has forces which are actively preventing that, how do we deconflict that?
The VA is generally doing exactly what it is designed to do. It is taking a "Garbage in, Garbage out" stance like any (computing) machine would, per the Letter of the Law, while ignoring the Spirit of the Law.
This pushes a burden down to individual reviewers and Judges to interpret every individual case... All 6 million Active Patients (of 22M Living Veterans), which is just not feasible.
Class Action Suits however, on its face make sense. But, the VA IS FOLLOWING the Letter of the Law. They are "technically" following the Spirit of the Law as well. It is the DoD (et al) who has created what I dare say a "toxic environment" where service members feel they cannot seek medical treatment for a few reasons (including):
1) Mission comes first.
2) "I can deal with the pain"
3) Admin (even medical admin) takes a backdoor to operations.
4) "If I don't do this, my buddy has to take up my slack"
So although I think the ability to use Class Action Suits may be useful in specific cases (Camp Lejeune Water), it is not going to be a "cure" for the Systemic Issue which actually originates inside the DoD.
CC: SGT (Join to see)
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SPC Joshua Dawson
Yeah but the way things go with the VA you are still going to get denied even if they admit that you have what you're claiming.
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SPC Joshua Dawson
They made me wait 4 years to even get claims appointments and then they screwed me out of the 4 years of backpay because they said that I didn't meet the criteria for the increase until I had those exams.
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