Hi Jim,
I love The Veterans Voice, but I could not get the e-mail there to work and I have a couple questions.
(1) I got a favorable findings from VA Office of General Counsel... they had held out $3,800.00 from my award for attorney fees and after I showed them that he did nothing to help me get the award, they sided with me on the issue, the award letter is dated Feb. 13th 2013 and today 04/25/2013 makes it 71 DAYS pass the date and there is a 60 appeal limit, so on the 61st dated the award become permanent, I wrote them a letter wanting my money when I thought the appeal limit was 30 days and have since found out it is 60 days... they are 11 DAYS pass that limit... IS THERE SOME LEGAL ACTION THAT WILL MAKE THEM SPEED UP MY RECOVERY??? Thanks.
(2) I had a Disability Claim with the Bureau of Veteran Affairs in D.C. and I had told them that I planned on appealing my case to COURT, with an Attorney if I got less than a 100% favorable ruling and rather than make a ruling... They sent my case back to Cleveland Regional Office here in Ohio... Is this damn SLICK manueuver (LEGAL)? As I can't appeal a Regional Decision to court... ONLY a decision from Bureau of Veteran Affairs and they sent it back to them, AFTER FIRST GETTING it from them, in the first place... It is like they are STALLING for more time and holding up my appeal to court RIGHTS... Can They Do This (LEGALLY)???
Thanks in advance for your attention to this matter and I look forward to hearing from you...
Reply:
I don't own or manage The Veterans Voice. I agree that it's a fine publication. Although I'm a contributor there, I don't have any control over emails, etc. My own publication is the VAWatchdog. Click here to see it http://www.vawatchdog.org
I have a problem with the way you are trying to stiff your lawyer. To say, "he did nothing to help me get the award" is very short-sighted of you and it isn't ethical. You agreed to pay the lawyer for the services he rendered and that agreement is your word. If you don't keep your word, well...that's a shame.
You really don't know what the lawyer did to help you. I often compare this process to having surgery done. You don't know how carefully the surgeon placed each stitch as he fixed you but you're well and grateful after an operation. Why should working with an attorney be any different?
Then you tell me that you're planning, "on appealing my case to COURT, with an Attorney if I got less than a 100% favorable ruling". So, although you don't like paying lawyers, you want to use them to threaten the VA.
You seem to want to massage the system using legal language and threats but you don't want to pay the professionals who get involved to help you. That simply isn't the right way to do things and I disagree with your actions.