Veterans Disability Tag

On March 21, 2013 the  Federal Circuit issued a precedential order in National Org. of Veterans Advoc. (NOVA) v. Shinseki, ordering the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to “show cause why it should not be sanctioned” after rule changes to 38 C.F.R. § 3.103 were repealed. As a background, 38 C.F.R. § 3.103 sets forth certain procedural rights the VA must follow during the course...

On March 11, 2013 the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Fed. Cir.) issued a published opinion on an appeal of the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) denial of a writ of mandamus.  The opinion can be accessed at Beasley v. Shinseki. The substantive issue underlying the petition for writ of mandamus was the veteran’s request that the Department of Veterans Affairs...

Justice Cardozo once observed, “The work of a judge is in one sense enduring and in another ephemeral. . . .   In the endless process of testing and retesting, there is a constant rejection of the dross and a constant retention of whatever is pure and sound and fine.” B. Cardozo, The Nature of the Judicial Process, 178-79 (1921).  I have come to accept that the Federal Circuit’s (Fed....

On February 21, 2013, the Federal Circuit (Fed. Cir.) issued a published opinion in Walker v. Shinseki overturning an entire body of case law that had developed regarding establishing service connection under 38 C.F.R. § 3.303(b). The opinion can be accessed at Walker v. Shinseki. In Walker v. Shinseki, the Fed. Cir. held that chronicity is “only available to establish service connection...

Mr. Earl Maxfield, Jr., served in the U.S. Merchant Marines in 1944, but has only been considered a “veteran” by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) since in November 2012.  This is the predicate for an interesting article by The Day concerning certain World War II merchant mariners who are considered “veterans” under Title 38. A “veteran” under Title 38...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is a critical government agency that provides much needed benefits and healthcare to veterans.  Sometimes, however, help comes in the form of a friendly neighbor and a community willing to rally around a disabled veteran to build a wheelchair accessible home.  As the linked CNN article documents, that act of kindness was the inception point for an expanding...

On December 21, 2012, United States Government Accountability Office (GOA) issued a new report on the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) backlog, entitled “Timely Processing Remains a Daunting Challenge.”  The GAO report can be accessed at GAO Report 13-89. The GAO report documents the various initiatives on the part of the VA to reduce the time for initial adjudication of...

The news reports documenting the waiting time (“backlog”) for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to adjudicate disability compensation and pension claims are now published on an almost daily basis.  That information is obviously of paramount concern, but I’ve made a command decision to balance out that information with something veteran-related that is positive. The...

Any veteran can search prior decisions by the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA) at the following: Link to BVA Decisions. The BVAs search engine was inoperable for a good portion of 2012, however, it is now up and running. The Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA) is an adminstrative tribunal within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) where members of the BVA review claims...

Countless veterans have encountered unfavorable VA rating decisions because a VA medical examiner issued an opinion that the etiology (cause of the condition or disease) of a claimed disability was not service connected. This is particularly true for claims related to the Camp Lejeune water contamination or conditions related to Agent Orange exposure that are not entitled to the statutory...