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Vets shouldn’t need to hire lawyers By Arthur H. Wilson
What is this country coming to when some in Congress say veterans might need to pay for legal assistance in filing claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for benefits they have earned as a result of their service and sacrifice for our nation?
Legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Senate that would remove the prohibition against attorneys’ being paid to help veterans with benefit claims. Proponents of the measure say it would improve access to the VA benefits system and make it faster and easier for veterans to obtain their benefits. Ironically, just the opposite would occur.
It is important to note that the image of lawyers as sleazy opportunists contriving to bilk disabled veterans and their survivors out of their meager government benefits is insulting and demeans those who are drawn to the law as a noble calling. But it is difficult to see how allowing attorneys to charge for their services will improve the system when it is abundantly clear that what ails the VA has nothing to do with whom veterans choose to represent them.
The real issues are the timeliness and accuracy of the decisions handed down by VA claims workers.
It is understandable why some attorneys advocate changing the system. Perhaps veterans who advocate it do so under the belief that they would receive better representation by attorneys. Again, just the opposite is true.
For example, in 2004, the average Board of Veterans’ Appeals allowance rate was 19.38 percent among veterans service organizations, which typically represent all claimants who seek their assistance. The allowance rate was 16.6 percent for attorneys, who have the luxury of handpicking their clients. All but one veterans service organization had higher allowance rates than lawyers.
The VA benefits-delivery system was designed to be open, informal and helpful to veterans. The goal was to ensure that veterans receive the benefits a grateful nation has provided for them rather than discourage or inhibit their claims with red tape or lengthy litigation.
Veterans, who fought for our country, should never have to fight our government to get the benefits a grateful nation has provided as a reward for their sacrifices and service. It is intended that these benefits be provided with a minimum of difficulty for the veteran claiming them.
It is important, we believe, to remain mindful that veterans obtain their benefits through an informal, non-adversarial and benevolent claims process, not a litigation process. The fundamental distinctions between the VA process and litigation reflect the clear congressional intent and a system deliberately designed to permit veterans to receive all the benefits they are due without any necessity to hire and pay lawyers.
In the VA process, its employees counsel veterans based on eligibility and their potential entitlement to benefits. The VA will assist a veteran in completing and filing the relatively informal application for benefits. The VA takes the initiative to advance the claim through the appropriate steps. Congress placed the duty on the VA to ensure all alternative theories of entitlement are exhausted and all laws and regulations pertinent to the case are considered and applied.
Admittedly, the VA often has fallen short of serving veterans in the manner intended. It sometimes denies veterans’ claims erroneously, even arbitrarily. Veterans sometimes do have to fight an aloof bureaucracy to obtain what they are clearly due.
However, if there were regular involvement of lawyers in the claims system, the informal, pro-veteran process would gradually evolve into a formal, legalistic and adversarial one. The VA would quite probably have to devote a substantial amount of its scarce resources — including a whole legion of employees — to the review of attorneys’ fee agreements. The increased administrative costs might have to be paid for by a reduction in veterans benefits elsewhere.
A far better use of the VA’s limited resources would be to hire more claims adjudicators and provide intensive training to improve the quality and timeliness of decisions. The VA also must enforce quality standards and uniformity through more effective management and exercise real accountability at all levels of the benefits delivery system. Better, more timely medical examinations and improved information-sharing between the Veterans Benefits Administration and VA healthcare facilities also are needed.
Only when the VA has taken the steps needed to improve both quality and timeliness of claims decisions and Congress provides the necessary resources will veterans receive the level of service they deserve. The VA’s objective — and its duty — is to provide timely and accurate decisions on veterans’ claims.
It would be shameful if a veteran seeking disability compensation for war wounds, for example, was confronted by a passive, indifferent, resistant or contentious bureaucracy and was expected to pay a lawyer to get what is due from the government. It would be equally inappropriate to allow lawyers to interject themselves into the claims process so that they could charge veterans for assistance in obtaining benefits.
Wilson is national adjutant/CEO of Disabled American Veterans.
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Absolutely agreed Iwish! This is sickening to even hear about. Although given the credibility some public defendants, they may want to hire their own, in which case those services should be a Veteran's Affairs expense. I will write both Senators and my Congressperson about this. This is outrageous.
-------------------- God's peace be with you A salaam a lakum Shalom Chevarim
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I do not know what to think about lawyers getting involved more in the VA. The reason for the possible legislation is that Veterans are frustrated with the system and hope this will give them another option to help correct it. A claim at its first step(regional office) will take usually 1-1.6 years to be evaluated and then you can go to step 2 which is having it reviewed at the regional office taking another 3-6 months to look at, then if you need to appeal another 1-1.6 years to review your claim and on and on. Claims can take 5-7 years to get a decision if you chose to fight them. The system needs to change and there needs to be stiff penalties against the VA. for wrong doing. If you win your claim now all you get is the money owed and no interest or no penalty to the VA for stringing claims out or for making wrong decisions, in fact it is a plus to hold that money for as long as they can. Will there be any changes in this system that is a closed system controlled by our gov. i doubt it it is liking fighting an insurance company where your only option is to fight them within their own system, they control all the cards. The problem is is that if all the claims were approved that should be and with these veterans living longer and more wars going, our gov. might not have any money left to fight any more wars. Until about 2 years ago if a veteran died while his claim was still pending the claim died also, no benefits to his or her family. The ones most hurt by this system are the ones that need this assistance the most, the Va's whole purpose is suppose to be to assist the veteran and give them every benefit of the doubt in these claims... it does not happen.
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