Veterans everywhere should be heartened by this decision. This Vet, from Louisville,Kentucky, gets a thumbs up decision on his earlier effective date in spite of the RO’s incessant efforts to quash it. The Vet sells his house and moves. He informs VA of his new address to no avail. Some chowderhead at the RO with an impaired IQ pulls up the old address and mails his SOC for denial of HCV. When he inquires (after a period of time) about the claim, the RO says “You lose”. Failure to file Form 9. Do not pass Go!. But VA does allow as how they’ll reopen it as a new claim. Vet wins and then gets down to the serious business of getting justice for the address fiasco. The RO isn’t buying this, does it’s ostrich imitation and forces him up to the BVA in D.C.

Again, this is a classic teaching moment. Most denials with merit win in D.C. Just because you are subject to inertia, poor logic analysis, and general ineptitude resulting in denied claims at the AOJ doesn’t condemn you chances on Appeal. Several of our moderators can tell you from personal experience that they won at the appellate level because BVA Judges have college degrees and good deductive and inductive logic circuits.

Say I asked you if you would tell me where you were born. A deductive person would surmise I wanted to know what state or city. An inductively oriented person would realize I was asking if he would or wouldn’t tell me (a yes or no answer) where. Judicially speaking, We want to have our cases heard by one with both capabilities. RO “ratings experts” or “VA examiners” work from a book of rules with no flexibility. If A equals B, then proceed to C. If A is less than B, then go to D for deny. Absence of logic and common sense breed poor legal decisions. Vets will be condemned by this legal tangle until the quality and training of our raters increases. With that in mind, be prepared to go to D.C. and win there.

http://www4.va.gov/vetapp10/files3/1029835.txt

Occam’s razor dictates that the simplest explanation is often the most logical based on the known facts. The RO refused to acknowledge that to the Vet’s detriment. It cost him several more years waiting for litigation. How frustrating and avoidable. It’s unfortunate we can’t penalize these miscreants with a monetary fine for failing to use their brainbox.