Source: https://cck-law.com/news/cck_video/10-cavc-cases-every-veteran-should-know-part-1/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 05:55:18+00:00

Document:
What is Case Law and how does it function in the VA system?
What does “at least as likely as not” mean?
Question: Is it a good idea to cite CAVC cases in a veteran’s disability claim?
When is a VA claim considered “pending”?
When do decisions become final?
How long can a VA claim remain pending?
How do you find a pending claim?
What makes an adequate medical opinion?
Do they have to provide analysis as well as a conclusion?
Does the CAVC award monetary benefits?
How does VA define “protected work environment” for purposes of TDIU (VA Unemployability benefits)?
Does VA look at the combined impact of multiple disabilities?
Zach Stoltz: Good afternoon and welcome to Facebook Live from Providence, Rhode Island. We are with Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick and today we are going to talk about Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims issues. To my left is Jenna Zellmer, who works on court appeals at Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick and to my right is my partner Robert Chisholm, one of the Chisholms of Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick, who has a wealth of experience both at the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the agency and all throughout the area of veterans law. And we are going to go through a little bit of the history of case law today. Its importance in veterans law. Now, we’re going to focus especially on cases that have come out of the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. We have a lot of other information on our website which is cck-law.com. Please visit there to see some of the essays that we have written, to see some of the successes of this firm and others have had at the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Some explanations of some of the most recent case law are on our website and we encourage you to check that out and even check it out while you’re listening to us today on Facebook Live. So, let’s get started. Jenna, what is case law and how does it function in the Veterans Affairs System?
Zach: Right. And the other thing about it is, as Jenna was saying, there can be– most cases are decided at the court by a single judge. So, let’s start giving examples of these– of the times that they go and sit in a panel of three or they sit as the entire court of now nine judges. So, the first case that we’re going to talk about today is Gilbert v. Derwinski. And Robert is going to start talking about that one, it is the quintessential case that stands for the proposition that in VA law and for veterans, the tie goes to the runner. And so, let’s talk a little bit about burden of proof. In traditional court systems, Robert, the burden of proof in criminal and civil. And then we’ll work our way into veterans.
Zach: So, to back up a little bit and again, we’re talking about the case of Gilbert v. Derwinski which came out in 1990. And it’s still a good law which 1990 is a relatively long time ago for veterans law. The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims is getting ready to celebrate on it’s 30th year of existence. When we say Gilbert versus Derwinski, just to be clear, Mr. Gilbert was a veteran. Derwinski was the secretary of Veterans Affairs. And so often, almost always, basically in the veterans compensation system you have the individual veteran versus whoever the secretary of Veterans Affairs was at the time the case was decided. So, this is Mr. Gilbert who happened to be a male veteran versus Derwinski, his first name escapes me. He was Secretary Derwinski in 1990 under the George H.W. Bush administration. And the other important thing that came out of this, is Robert was saying there was– it’s– at least as likely as not. So, you’re supposed to have, if it’s equal, if it’s totally in equipoise in the VA system, who wins, Robert?
Zach: Ingram v. Nicholson is the second case on our list today. Mr. Ingram, the veteran. Nicholson being the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. This case is from 2007 and it’s a major case, a case that we cite all the time in our pleadings to the court here. And I think it’s Robert’s turn. So, this has to do with how long claims can be pending and what constitutes a claim and what is– let’s start with an informal claim for veterans benefits.
Robert: 526 form. The VA 526 form. That’s a formal claim on the form that the VA likes to see them on. Now, as of– I’m not sure what year– all claims need to be formal claims and pending claims are no more after that date. But if a veteran made a verbal claim and reduced it to writing in some format, they could still be pending claims before that particular date. Now, I want to say it was like 2012, 2013, somewhere in that time frame.
Zach: Well, let’s move on to the next case which we talked a little bit earlier or Robert talked a little bit earlier about the importance in the context of the tie goes to the runner and that Gilbert case that we talked about the importance of medical evidence and seeing as how these are claims for disability compensation. Obviously, medical evidence is the most important evidence. That tends to be the most important evidence, 99 percent of the time in these cases. And so there are two cases that we’d like to talk about that are commonly cited at the court and at the board levels and their Stefl v. Nicholson and Nieves-Rodriguez v. Peake, the secretary changed there, Stefl from 2007 and it was Nieves-Rodriguez for 2008. They are kind of companion cases. Nieves-Rodriguez cites Stefl and builds off of it. And so, let’s talk a little bit about it. Jenna.
Zach: And so, what does the court do about it? What’s the remedy from the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Let’s say that they– so, they agree Stefl and Nieves-Rodriguez that the examination was not adequate. It wasn’t well-supported. It wasn’t explained. So, what they do about it?
Zach: Cantrell v. Shulkin from 2017. This was a case that Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick worked on. It went to the court. An attorney from Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick went to an oral– participated in the oral argument which is to say, she went to Washington DC and was given a half an hour to explain Mr. Cantrell’s point of view. That decision came out positively for Mr. Cantrell. And let’s talk about it a little bit. Jenna.
Zach: Partner Barb Cook. Barb Cook.
Jenna: Partner Barb Cook went to court and kind of set VA straight and said, “We need to define what protected work environment means in the term– in the context of TDIU.” And so, the court agreed with us and said the board and VA need to look at the degree of accommodation of the veteran versus receiving from his or her employer and to look at the combined impact of all the veteran service connected disabilities. And so, even though a veteran may have stopped working or may be working but is– has some interference from one service connected disability, there are probably also other impairments from his other service connected disabilities and you can’t just look at one disability in a vacuum because that’s not how we live our lives. And so, that’s what the court agreed.
Zach: All right. Let’s talk about the last case of today. This is part 1, by the way, of our series of important cases. Part 2 is going to be next week where we’re going to talk about five more cases and I’m sure there will be a part three and a part four to follow at some point. But for right now, we’re on part 1. And our last case of today’s session is going to be Emerson vs. McDonald. It is from 2016. It has to do with 38 CFR 3.156c , which is the regulation. And Robert Chisholm is going to talk about it.
Robert: A veteran has the right or a claimant has the right to reopen the claim after it’s final with what’s called new and material evidence. So, for example, if you lost your claim because the VA doctor said the condition wasn’t related to service, the veteran can get a new medical opinion saying that the condition is related to service and more likely than not, that would be new and material evidence to reopen a claim and the VA would have to make a new decision. But when a claim is reopened with new and material evidence, generally speaking, the effective date that the VA is going to assign is the date you requested to reopen the claim. But 3.156c is an exception to that finality. The start date of the benefits could go back to the date of your original claim and here’s why. The regulation provides that if you add service records that weren’t part of the original claim, the VA can reopen the claim and reconsider the claim and examine the evidence back to the date of the original claim. So, let’s give a concrete example of this. Let’s say it’s June 1980 and a veteran files a claim for post-traumatic stress disorder. He has a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. But he’s unable to produce service records to show that he was in combat in Vietnam. And for some reason those records, the VA is not able to obtain them or did not obtain them in 1980. Fast forward to 2016, the veteran requests and receives a copy of all his service records that show in fact that he was in combat in Vietnam. He still has the diagnosis of PTSD. The veteran submits all of that to the VA, reopens that 1980 claim. Assuming that veteran has had PTSD from 2016 all the way back to 1980, guess what? The effective date the VA is supposed to assign goes all the way back to 1980. And that is essentially what Emerson is about. It’s about the addition of service records after finally adjudicate a claim to try and get the claim to go back to the earlier start date. We have used this in hundreds of cases to help veterans get all the benefits they are entitled to. We were scheduled to go to oral argument just last week on a case involving 3.156c that we were able to resolve and settle before the oral argument. It was another case involving this specific regulation. So, when I say this is one of my favorite regulations, it’s because it really helps veterans get the benefits they are entitled to from the original date of the claim. And it’s a very important regulation.
Robert: Really, one of the things we tried to do once the case goes back to the agency is use these cases in Cantrell, Emerson, Stefl, all these cases, Nieves-Rodriguez, on dealing with the examinations, we cite to those cases to the board. As they said, we don’t, as a practical matter do that. The regional office, the reality is they’re not going to listen. But at the board, you want to present all that and make your best case to win before the Board of Veterans Appeals. So, these are very important cases. And that’s the only piece I’d add.
Zach: And what I can add is to thank everyone for tuning into Facebook Live today. We are Chisholm Chisholm & Kilpatrick. This is Robert Chisholm, this is Jenna Zellmer. I’m Zach Stoltz. Thank you very much for tuning in. We will be doing this again next week with a fresh round of cases to discuss. And we hope that you all tune in then. Thank you very much.

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