Everyone seems to know they can come here and ask me to hand out public service announcements on my site. I’m a real soft touch for helping Vets. Oddly, it doesn’t require any coin of the realm to induce me to publish it. We don’t advertise our business here and we don’t advertise for others. No cheap Viagra or Russian wifestock. However, due to a long, wonderful symbiosis between Chisholm, Chisholm and Kilpatrick (CCK) and myself, I’m honored to bring my fellow Veterans anything from CCK which involves assistance, enlightenment or edification from their legal stable. 

CCK is a virtual font of information-a veritable cornucopia of knowledge there for the taking-and free to boot. It scares me to think that they can employ eleventyseven employees whose sole focus appears to be providing us cutting edge, real time knowledge.

Been there done that.

I attach here a Youtube© post I received from one of their attorneys this morning. I knew the BVA problem was  serious and compounding itself with daily interest like a bad loan shark debt. But this briefing will roll your socks down. Had I known asking for a VAF 10182 NOD Hearing with submission of new evidence was going to have such a profound effect on delaying some of my clients’ claims in 2019, I would have taken a far different tack below at the regional level. Live and learn.

The old saw that hindsight is 20/20 couldn’t be more applicable but after watching the video, I went back and examined all my BVA appeals in CASEFLOW and was shocked to find that earlier 10182s via the direct docket- and not even advanced on the docket, mind you- were being accomplished in as little as 195 days in 2019-2020. Comparing that to my well-aged appeals still in the queue just for direct reviews, I’m appalled/stunned at the lack of progress. CCK’s analysis and reporting amply illuminates the problem. Alas, CCK provides no panacea to defeat this gross inequity. Not that I anticipated one. We’re all pretty much in the same litigation lifeboat and helpless to fix it. So much for a Veteran friendly venue in which to present our ex parte claims.

The thrill of victory (being alive). 

I doubt there ever will be a repair order to speeding up the adjudication rate in the near future outside of obtaining an advancement on the docket (AOD). With that said, I can’t even in good conscience say that would be the definitive repair order. I have a surviving spouse sitting in the AOD penalty box at the BVA since her husband abruptly punched out last July. By last July, I mean July 2021. Fortunately, a eagle-eyed BVA intake gentleman spotted it as a return from a prior bitchslap. Judge Mike Skaltsounis has heard this case three times in the last six years-most recently last April (2021). To add insult to injury, it’s a direct appeal with no evidence submission-touted by the VA bean counters to be the most expedient path. I had the widow contact the White House and she got the standard “ponydog” treatment (we’re paddling as fast as we can and we have to do it in the order received so get back in line).

The pig packers. Always 6’1” or taller

Under the video presentation, you’ll find a “Subscribe” button to receive all CCK’s Youtube presentations. If you’re actively involved in your claim/appeal (and you should be), you’ll find a wellspring of knowledge that is guaranteed credible and gives you insight on how to or how come questions. You have my word. Asknod what you can do for your claim.

Knowledge, in this business, is essential to a quick win. In my world, that gives me more time to move on and help another Veteran equally in dire need of assistance. I work in a heavily triaged practice. A majority my clients are so severely disabled as to need SMC L at a bare minimum. Over 70% deserve far more. Unfortunately, VA is loath to disburse SMC R1, R2 or T without a knock down, drag out fight. Look up “Free-for-all” in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and there’s undoubtedly a picture of Denis the Menace. That’s why my workload is BVA-heavy. CCK’s Youtube report brings great sadness. I hate to have to be the one to tell all my clients we’re in for a long, cold winter of inaction but it appears so.

The old three-prong flash suppressor/roachclip model

See you in Cincinnati this week if you’re heading that way. More anon.