I think it’s time we, not as litigators, but as Veterans, acknowledge the truth. As many of you know, or maybe many of you do not know, in 2007, while trying to win my claim for VA benefits, I decided to read every BVA decision I could find going back to 1992. I focused on Hepatitis C because that was what I sought. I winnowed out the thousands of denials from the handful of grants and discovered one thing in common amongst the winners. Each and every Veteran had a nexus letter. I then went to the CAVC website and read every panel decision from 1989 to 2000. Bingo! Caluza vs. Brown. Each BVA decision cited Caluza as their predicate for granting. 

This was the Rosetta Stone we’d been lacking since the War of Northern Aggression. From there I began helping (not preparing and mailing out) other Veterans by telling them what they lacked. I wrote a book in 2012 to herald this important finding. When I became accredited in 2015, I happened to run into the folks at Mednick Associates at a legal conference. They were in the business of helping Veterans obtain these needed nexus letters-but only by objective, carefully analyzed methods universally recognized as being legally legitimate and free of any fraudulent techniques.

And here we are today. Everybody but Micky Mantle’s mom seems to be in the business of providing these letters to Veterans… for a price. To say they are objective and free of trickery and artifice would be like trying to turn the truth into a rubber band. Recently, we (many of my fellow litigators from a legal four-letter acronym consortium who prefer I do not besmirch their good name) received a warning from one of these outfits threatening legal lawsuits if we continue to call them “claims sharks” or aver they are breaking the law.

So, this morning, my electronic inbasket doth overflow with the revelation that Vets Guardian© may be in deep doo doo. Seems some ol’ Judge down in North Carolina is fixin’ to proceed with a federal False Claims Act lawsuit against this “VA Claims Preparer”. I reckon they pissed off one of their partners in crime who worked for the outfit. This is a whistleblower claim- the ones that have a lot of mustard on the hotdog worth taking a gander at.

Simply put, we’re not allowed to charge a Veteran a dime if we win his claim without a fight. If VA decides to deny the claim, why, then, the gloves come off and we fight to the mat to win. If, or rather  I guess I should say, when, we win, we are permitted to charge a far-smaller amount for the period of the claim from denial to the day of the win. 20% is the norm. Bigwigs like Hill and Ponton or Bergmann and Moore might charge 30% but the truth is, in the civilian ambulance-chasing world of personal injury, 40% is the norm and some go for 45-50%.

Sure, DAV and the rest  of the VSOs will do it for free at the Agency level but everyone knows that’s like stopping at an Interstate highway rest area for the free coffee even if you don’t have to pee. You get what you pay for-or, in their case, what you didn’t pay for. Vets Guardian, and their ilk have a far higher monetary incentive for doing this. The hook, in many instances, is it’s free…unless you win. Then you have to pay- even if VA didn’t fight you and deny. The going rate seems to be uniform. They want 5 months of the increase-period. Think about that. If you were a 0% for hearing loss and you suddenly advance to 100% P&T for bent brain syndrome, you’re gonna get retro. 100% (married) equals $4,044.91 per month. If it took a year to win, that’s $20,225.00 you owe your “facilitator”.

Now, I’ve written about this in the past as I’ve watched it develop. Most recently these sharks have put forth the plaint of Rodney King- “Can’t we all just get along?” Or, translated, “Can’t we continue to screw Vets via an alternate pathway parallel to VSOs and VA Attorneys/ Agents without having to be accredited? ” This is what the new VA Choice Act is all about. To assuage their umbrage at being referred to as sharks, perhaps I should tone down my strident words and call them “facilitators”. Sherpas? Interested Medical Observers who wish to help poor Veterans?

Whatever you choose to call them, they are actively schmoozing Congressmen/women- mostly Republican ones- into sanctioning this travesty. If this were just a semantic argument over terminology, it wouldn’t be so touchy. But the facilitators know full well they are blatantly breaking the law and continue because Congress is too lazy to fix it and fence them out. Or prosecute them. Until today. Check this out.

Court Permits Whistleblower Lawsuit Alleging Nationwide Fraud by Veterans Guardian and Three Individuals to Proceed

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating that we, as Attorneys and Agents recognized by VA, desire to corner the market ourselves and enjoy our own financial fiefdom. I think I speak for all VA Attorneys and Agents when I say I want Vets to win any way they can- but legally. Someone with a psychology degree from East Bumfork University in Egypt who will write up a DBQ for you saying you’re totally bugf__ky and qualify for 100% for $20,000 is okay with me but is he above board?

The VA’s compensation system is predicated heavily on credibility and competence. Remove either one of those building blocks and the sand castle comes tumbling down. We depend on the legitimacy of the Mednick-style IMO system. Certainly, there are others besides Mednick, but the system relies on honesty, not a contrived system whereby you can purchase a nexus like you would a car.

Up to now, I was willing to buy into the basic tenet that  claims sharks’ IMOs were legitimate simply because I didn’t have any concrete proof they weren’t. I’ve seen some high flyers from doctors I won’t mention out loud here that stopped short of blaming alien abduction, but until now, no one inside the industry had come out and said the Emperor was naked.

This changes the nexus topography dramatically. We’ll keep you posted on this North Carolina Necktie Party as it develops.