VA Benefits News

As the following June 22, 2015 news article documents, Vietnam veteran Conley Monk’s discharge was upgraded from a Other Than Honorable (OTH) discharge to a General Under Honorable Condition (General) by the Board for Correction of Naval Records .  It appears four other Vietnam veterans were granted similar upgrades.  The article can be accessed at Hartford Courant. As we have previously...

In previous blogs, I had commented on Yale Veterans Clinic’s Petition for Mandamus and Request for Aggregate Relief/Class Action Status in Monk v. McDonald.  Our prior blog can be accessed at Monk v. McDonald.  The petition had picked up significant media coverage because it concerned the excessive delay in adjudicating claims subject to appeal before the Department of Veterans Affairs...

Every once in a while a general interest story about veterans hits the news and causes me to pause and reflect . . . in a good way.  Last year, it was a historical account of the daughter of a civil war veteran who still receives a small pension for her father’s service by the Wall Street Journal. Today, its a Washington Post Article about America’s oldest living veteran, Richard...

On April 23, 2015, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claim (CAVC) remanded, in pertinent part, the Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision denying service connection for conditions related to TCDD (Agent Orange) exposure for Mr. Gray a Vietnam-era veteran.  I don’t want to give away the end of the movie, but the question of whether Mr. Gray is a veteran with service in Vietnam under...

Last week, the St. Paul Pension Management Center granted on appeal the surviving spouse of a veteran Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC).  The issue on appeal involved a dependency status question when the marriage lasted less than one year.  While marriage for one year is the normal predicate question for spousal status, in this case “status” was satisfied under 38 C.F.R....

Last week, we published a short article concerning the Yale Veterans Clinic’s petition under the All Writs Act in Monk v. McDonald.  In the ensuing week, numerous websites have published articles about this petition, to include the New York Times (accessible at April 7, 2015 New York Times Article). In addition to press articles, a number of veterans (to include clients) have emailed me...

On October 6, 2014, David Hilzenrath, an editor for Project on Government Oversight (POGO), published a lengthy and comprehensive article on a veteran the firm began representing last year.  The claim involved a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical malpractice claim under 38 U.S.C. §  1151 that has been pending at different levels of the VA adjudication process since 2006.  At the time...

As documented by various news organizations, the Yale University Veterans Legal Services Clinic  has filed a petition for writ of mandamus regarding the delay in adjudication on appeal for a Vietnam veteran, Mr. Conley F. Monk, before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC).  While petitions for a writ of mandamus before the CAVC are filed and denied on a daily basis by the CAVC, Mr....

A few days ago, we blogged about the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) eliminating net worth in determinations of eligibility and assignment of priority group. I commented that the VA Form 10-10EZ would need to be updated to reflect this change. I was a day late and a dollar short, the Department of Veterans Affairs has updated both the VA Form 10-10EZ and VA 10-10EZR (Health Benefits...

Effective March 24, 2015, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is mandating that certain forms be used to effectuate the filing of a claim before the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA).  The VA’s website has been updated to reflect this at VA Claim Filing. The five forms veterans should be aware of are: (1) VA Form 21-526EZ (Claim for Compensation); (2) VA Form 21-527EZ (Claim for...