Attorneys Offer Help w/Claims FREE

More than half of the disability cases decided by the 57 regional offices of the Department of Veterans Afairs are reversed or returned for reconsideration upon appeal
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http://www.usatoday .com/news/ nation/2007- 11-26-valawyers_ N.htm

Lawyers step up to help veterans gratis


By Laura Parker, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The scene resembled Hollywood's version of how a multibillion- dollar legal deal might be negotiated. Big-name corporate law firm. Posh conference room, with a conference table so large 70 attorneys fit easily around it. Video technicians, hovering nearby, beam the meeting to other big law firms from Boston to Seattle.
Yet there was no deal to cut. Instead, the high-powered lawyers were getting a tutorial in the arcane vagaries of veterans law.

"This could be the VA's worst nightmare," Bart Stichman, one of the organizers, enthused from the podium. "Hundreds of attorneys from around the country providing legal service to veterans for free."

The recent gathering at Sidley Austin, a firm with 1,700 lawyers around the globe, is part of a growing effort to provide free legal help to thousands of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who are trying to win disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

"There are 100,000 veterans seeking benefits, and too many of them are waiting too long to get them," says Ron Abrams, who, with Stichman, directs the National Veterans Legal Services Program, a non-profit group in Washington spearheading the effort. "These lawyers are going to treat these veterans the way they would treat their corporate clients."

The approach marks the first time since the Civil War that attorneys have been recruited in large numbers to represent veterans. The lawyers hope their legal expertise will speed consideration of claims and result in better benefits for veterans, Stichman says. More than 50 of the largest law firms in the USA and more than 400 attorneys have signed up. Stichman and Abrams hope to start assigning veterans to the attorneys early next month.

Law schools join cause

Amanda Smith, an attorney with the Philadelphia- based firm Morgan Lewis, says many of the participating lawyers are Vietnam veterans and "are appalled at the circumstances that they find veterans in today."

Besides the push by big law firms, law schools in states such as the Carolinas, Virginia, Delaware, Michigan and Illinois also are offering free services to veterans.

Craig Kabatchnick, who worked as a VA appellate attorney from 1990 until 1995, launched a clinic last January for veterans at North Carolina Central University's law school, where he now teaches.

"We had all kinds of veterans who were very disabled, litigating against trained attorneys like myself who were defending the VA," Kabatchnick says. The VA would "win" if the claim was denied, Kabatchnick says. "Did we litigate to win? Absolutely. In cases where the veteran was representing himself, the win ratio was very high."

Paul Hutter, the VA's general counsel, says its attorneys have "an ethical obligation to fairly and justly" review claims and settle "meritorious cases quickly."

"Our job is to ensure that veterans get the benefits allowed them by law," he says in an e-mail.

Disability claims have increased from 578,773 in fiscal 2000 to 838,141 this year, according to VA figures. There are about 407,000 pending. The average processing time is 177 days, the VA says.

Change in law lifted restrictions

Traditionally, veterans have represented themselves or sought assistance from a service organization, such as the American Legion or the Veterans of Foreign Wars. But many of the caseworkers in those groups are overloaded with cases, Stichman says, and sometimes one volunteer oversees 1,000 veterans' claims.

The approach has not led to quick compensation for veterans. Evidence supporting a veteran's claim — medical records or letters from colleagues — is not always submitted with the original claim. When that evidence is added later, it can lead to reversals or requests for reconsideration. That can add more than a year to the appeals process, the VA says.

The Board of Veterans Appeals either reverses or orders reconsideration of decisions made by VA regional offices 56% of the time, according to an analysis of VA figures by Stichman's group. Congress has long kept attorneys at arms-length from the veterans' disability process. Until last June, when federal law changed, paid attorneys could not work on cases until after a final decision by the Board of Veterans' Appeals. The VA is now considering regulations that would require all attorneys to pass a test in order to qualify to handle veterans' claims, according to Phil Budahn, a department spokesman.

Service organizations, including the Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars, vigorously fought the change in law. They are now pushing to repeal the law and support requiring a test, arguing that lawyers could turn what is supposed to be a non-adversarial process into a litigious one.

"The fear was lawyers will dominate, and they'll ruin everything," says Thomas Reed, a law professor at Widener University in Wilmington, Del., who began offering free legal services to veterans in 1997.

Lawyers not the cure-all

Joe Violante, national legislative director of the Disabled American Veterans, which represents 1.3 million veterans, says trained volunteers from the service organizations are far more experienced at representing veterans' claims than the newly recruited lawyers.

"If the veteran is under the impression that an attorney is going to get their claim through faster, there's no proof of that," he says.

Ron Flagg, a Sidley attorney involved in the pro bono veterans' project, says there are so many claims that the system is overwhelmed.

"Lawyers are not the cure to all ills," he says. "But this is a problem where lawyers can be helpful."

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APPEALS GET SECOND LOOK

More than half of the disability cases decided by the 57 regional offices of the Department of Veterans Afairs are reversed or returned for reconsideration upon appeal. In fiscal 2007, the Board of Veterans' Appeals heard 40,401 cases. Of those, 22,817 or 56% were overturned or sent back to regional offices. Status of appealed cases at the 10 largest regional VA offices:

City Reversed{+1} Sent back{+2} Total{+3}

Atlanta 23% 40% 63%

St. Petersburg, Fla. 26% 37% 63%

Little Rock 22% 39% 61%

New York 22% 38% 60%

Nashville 23% 37% 60%

Montgomery, Ala. 20% 38% 58%

Winston-Salem, N.C. 23% 34% 57%

Houston 18% 36% 54%

Waco, Texas 19% 33% 52%

St. Louis 18% 33% 51%

National average 21% 35% 56%


1 - Claim granted by the Board of Veterans' Appeals after being rejected by the regional office.

2 - Claim sent back to the regional office for further review.

3 - Total percentage of claims reversed or sent back.

Source: National Veterans Legal Services Program analysis of Board of Veterans' Appeals figures for fiscal year 2007