An interesting thing happened to our old friend Butch. As some may recall, he filed an Extraordinary Writ of Mandamus at the Court of Veterans Appeals asking for a bye on the Hamster Wheel Appeals process. He filed back in March 2015 and the Perfect Storm ensued. First, they found a 1980s address to misdirect everything to “plausibly”. Then they adjudicated about half of what he filed for and tried to lull him to sleep with a TDIU plus P&T. I stepped in and applied the fire hose for CUE, §3.156(c) and everything but the kitchen sink he’d informally complained of at his 1970 10-minute C&P exam.
The Delay Game Perfected
VA kept asking for new 526EZs, more 4142s-basically anything to throw sand in the gears. We snagged an 85 IQ DRO who doesn’t even know her own powers to decide inextricably intertwined claims in the first instance… per the Procedures Manual… that comes attached to the Segmented Lanes Model. Yep. That about sums up the tenor of how this claim went. I will say for the record that I’ve never seen a body’s eyebrows crawl clean up to the hairline before we went to that DRO review. It was a Kodak moment. 156 pages of vintage STRs sitting at the NPRC in St. Louis for 45 years because VA never went back and retrieved them. Brand new service department records never associated with the claims file have a way of wrecking your Christmas bonus projections. Butch finally blew an ass gasket and filed the Writ. Few of us could blame him considering they denied his IHD following his amputation with the nexus letter right there in front of them. This was blatant top sheeting at it’s finest hour. Personally, I think it’s me they don’t like. Law Bob Squarepants gets pretty much the same treatment at the Detroit Puzzle Palace.
As we all know, your chances of winning an Ex Writ are slight better than getting hit by lightning while waiting to cash in that record winning Powerball $985 million ticket. Actually, maybe worse. So few have been granted, it’s hard to say statistically. What we do know is that a Writ based on delay will light a fire under the OGC’s ass like you won’t believe. And sure enough, the mea culpas came tumbling out. On the 30th day the sackcloth and ashes were donned and the miscreant Assistant Veterans Service Center Manager (AVSCM) was trotted out to swear by all that’s sacred at Fort Fumble that Butch’s pile of disagreements would be ready for the three holy signatures by January 27th, 2018. We shall see.
About the only thing I see that gives me a glimmer of hope is what Judge Allen intoned at the end of the denial for retaining mandate:
“Of course, if the Secretary were refuse to act[sic], petitioner would be within his rights to return to this Court seeking an extraordinary writ with respect to such inaction.”
I’m expecting a slew of 0%s but in our case, we don’t have to drag in reams of proof for the interim Fenderson Ratings game. In most CUEs, they willingly grant their stupidity and promptly assign zeros across the board as we rarely have corroborating intercurrent medical records to prove the level of disability. Here, we have a lot of shrapnel that can’t be faked; an eyeball with nine little chunks of steel and rocks. A lens missing for decades (aphakia)-even chloroiditis. It’s like carrying your medical records everywhere you go. The DRO’s plaint was “How are we to fill in the ratings percentages over 45 years without proof?” My answer was ” Elementary. X ray him.” Something was lost in translation because they had refused to do so for almost two and one-half years. First, they looked for healed broken bones instead of metal. Next they ignored where it was and refused to x ray the claimed areas. I guess the Coach will only see it when she finally believes it. If it continues, I’ll file Butch’s next Ex Writ. I took out a hunting license for the CAVC and I can’t wait to find out what the size restrictions and the bag limits are.
Our asshat friends. Jez, didn’t they get enough of them in service?
We pray this, for the most part, will be over on the 27th of the new year. I can’t see them funning him for much longer. I’ll let a room at the Hotel Alexis across the street and torment them daily to finish it. So mark your calendars and stay tuned. Same Bat Time . Same Bat Channel. Happy Holidays, folks. We have much to give thanks for …like that spunky new Fully Developed Appeals law. I reckon the DAV asshats and the rest of the VSO Tribes will think they’re too cool for school until the statistics start coming in with a .000 Appeals batting average at the BVA. Ah, if it were only that simple…
And that’s all I’m gonna say about that.
asknod
brewerkelli
cspencer02
jamesaurora
kcraveiro
Laura
Veterans Claims Help 
Hang em high……….’till they kick like a frog’
Excellent as always and instructional as a picture of Hades by Dante himself. I hesitatingly (August) adopted a VSO; Vets of Foreign Incursions, as my own Appeal gets closer the the end, principally in part because it can’t hurt; since my “New Evidence” is in place for The Appeal, and because V.A. squashed my other new claim of July back in August saying; no no, your Appeal hasn’t been finalized yet. I accepted this regression as SOP then low and behold the VSO refiled the SAME New Claim on 9/19/2017 and which not only still stands today but which has even more “New Evidence” courtesy of your’s truly..
So Appeal goes twelve years in February (yippee) and I’m not dying in the meantime, even if its another decade. Maybe they want to go back to CAVC again? Believe I’d do better than the last Joint remand if they do. Season greetings..
The bummer is that the VSO “refiled”. You realize the old effective date of 12 years ago just went poof into the circular file. This is VA’s way of teaching VSOs how to reduce the overhead on old appeals. Reopening something on appeal can be appealed but it takes the back seat in an appeals posture. When you give your POA to someone, you should put some strict limitations on it. Egads. I just looked and there’s no box like a VAF 21-22a box 10 for limitations of POA.
They Filed a New Claim, how does this affect my Appeal; which is twelve years in feb??
The Appeal deals with the issues before the Court in 2016, how can the VSO’s refiling of my “seperate” Claim in September,( which the VA squashed in August) sabotage that Appeal date, and what can I do about it if this is true? Highest regards and appreciate your efforts on behalf of others.
Mr. Poliver, you figuratively proffer me a pair of binoculars backwards to view your claims myopically from afar. That, sir, I am incapable of. I merely observed the marked propensity of VSOs to refile claims in an attempt to have a claim adjudicated more rapidly at the expense of sacrificing the effective date. Because you are currently represented, by law I cannot disturb that relationship. It’s unprofessional. Advice given here is generic to the broader issues of claims compensation in general. For specific advice, I charge a consulting fee to keep the lights on. As I do have other clients, my efforts are necessarily focused on them exclusively. Sadly, after 9 years of a Peanuts “Lucy in the psychiatrist’s office for 5 cents” model, I have to now devote the time to the practice. I do hope you (and all my readership) would avail yourselves first of the over 3,000 blogs I have written on these subjects. It’s akin to a library. Seek it out and you will often find the answers. If not, then ask.
Totally appreciate (again and again) the what you are doing and don’t recall asking you OR the VSO or anyone short of my last “attorney” for any legal advice or free counsel. I am NOT Represented by any legal entity that I know of unless I am totally uneducated in the ways of V.A. collusion; that the VSO; Vets of Foreign Incursions is/are now my “attorney”??? In that case I can do three things that I know. 1. Pull the VSO plug on my ebenefits.va.gov Premium account. 2. Push the icon; Make Decision on this Claim and 3. (which I’ve already begun three hours ago; Attack the V.A. on Social media, which is something that I’m quite competent to do. Yes, I DO research ALL your wondrous material as often as is possible. As for any payment for whatever, my Income is $1,050 a month. How could I do that? This is why I got a Free pass at the CAVC and will again when we go back for #2, and I’m confident we will and maybe sooner than later now.
“I am NOT Represented by any legal entity that I know of unless I am totally uneducated in the ways of V.A. collusion”
“They Filed a New Claim, how does this affect my Appeal; which is twelve years in feb??”
“[t]hen low and behold the VSO refiled the SAME New Claim on 9/19/2017”
Sir, if you are not represented, who is this mysterious entity who keeps filing claims in your stead? Obviously someone holds your Power Of Attorney in order to be able to file with your permission against your best interests.
Is it possible that my presumptive belief that a VSO; may have been able to assist me thru the hamster wheel, yet who has in affect plotted against me and my un- finalized Appeal by Filing without ANY contact with moi and/or conversation between us; the Claim that I had filed previously in July, but which was squashed by the V.A. in August with the note;” you cannot file a new claim until Appeal is finalized”; yet this same V.A. O.K.’d the exact same exact claim filing; now by this “VSO” which by some special license might have superman like power/s? I have not yet disconnected these people/person/ this VSO on my premium ebenefits account or within the last twenty four hours, but I’d have to believe that If I do this, then it might vaporize “their claim” and make it disappear as well as some plastic bag blowing in the wind?
I enjoyed your self-described humorous term “scribe” and could image you working by oil or candle light into the night on this. Seattle, get over yourselves. This man was not even given x-rays to detect metals, a simple matter. Enough is enough….
Well, yes K. I “scribed it” inasmuch as I paraphrased what he said and brushed it up into passable English with expletives deleted. I was fresh out of candles.
Hang em high