WELCOME TO THE COURT OF VETERANS APPEALS

	12/06/08	#1

Date: 09/08/08Welcome to the CAVC and old age If your NOA finally arrives at the CAVC within the allotted 120 days, you will be greeted by many, many people—lawyers. You will need at least one, preferably 5 or 6 according to them. You will be granted funds to defend your claim. The EAJA, aka the Equal Access to Justice Act , will give you that moola if you prevail Hopefully, your new law dogs will find something radically wrong with your BVA decision. Should that happen, you are going to experience DEJA VU. The dreaded REMAND will be invoked and your claim returned to the BVA, who will, in turn, REMAND it to the -you guessed it- AMC. who will in turn , hand it to that really, really old Pony express guy who…… You may present your case, in person(pro se) to the CAVC but remember Shakespeare’s admonition: “A man who represents himself has a fool for a client”. Truer words were never spoken. These guys speak Latin as their first language. Your head will spin with sua spontes and nunc pro tuncs. Leave it to someone trained in this and try your hand at Wheel of Fortune. If your liverbox isn’t at Stage 4, you may get a decision before you climb Jacob’s ladder.The good news is that if you lose at the CAVC, you can appeal the decision to the Federal Circuit. Occasionally, the VA Secretary will do this if he is not happy with the results. It happened once in response to an adverse decision on Tinnitus ratings for each ear(in effect until 1999). He appealed and won. You can appeal a loss at the Fed. Cir. level to the Supreme Court of the United States if you can convince them to hear it. The VA Secretary did this in Brown v. Gardner. Any time you see the VA secretary’s name first (Brown), you know the Secretary is appealing YOUR win. It happens and is becoming more and more frequent. If you wish to view CAVC reviews by us, look in the Important CAVC Rulings Forum. There are a lot of pro se examples there if you wish to represent yourself. The Court will treat you with kid gloves and accord you great leeway, too. Good luck on your endeavors.