VA Claims and Ping Pong

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Registered: 11/22/08
Posts: 654

	06/24/11	#1

It occurred to me today watching several young people playing Ping Pong how much the game emulates life in the VA claims process. Imagine your serve to be the opening shot across the bow (filing for compensation). VA’s response is a return-immediate and predictable. Send us your info, nexus, etc. So you return their shot with the particulars of your claim and your proof. Again, predictably(and usually about 15 months later), you get your long-awaited denial. The tempo of the game is now set. You return your shot with a NOD. VA responds, appropriately, with another denial in the form of the SOC. If you have anything to refute their denial such as exculpatory, overlooked evidence, you now submit that and wait for the return service. Approximately 6 months transpire before they return with a SSOC denying yet again. This sets the stage for your final return to them in the form of your Substantive Appeal certification. After a year, you will receive their shot telling you your claim is certified and will soon (3 months) be mailed to Washington, District of Columbia to the BVA. Absent a Travel Board hearing or a time-numbing remand to the RO for some inconsequential thing, you will receive BVA’s serve and start a new game. That can and does sometimes turn into a longer process than the local RO process. Your option to ask for a reconsideration based on new evidence (MFR) or your Notice of Appeal constitutes your service return to them. Depending on their response, your next serve will be at the CAVC. While the game certainly enjoys many similarities to ex parte justice, the dissimilarity in time consumed sets the two apart. VA Ping Pong is not for ADHD, ADD or impatient Vets. It should be something addressed every once in a while like a long-distance game of chess transmitted via snail mail. There are plenty of opportunities to contemplate your navel and much more. Growing Weyerhauser Hybrid Douglas Fir trees comes to mind. You’ll see results in 20 years and harvest in 35- just in time to supplement your SSI. A VA comp. check all that time would be nice, but they pay to date of claim (your first serve) so relax if you can survive that long. VA justice is not justice denied- it’s simply justice delayed so long it’s criminal.
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