"Concerned that injured soldiers are getting a raw deal upon returning home, three firms — Foley & Lardner; Atlanta's King & Spalding; and New York's LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae — have offered to do pro bono work on behalf of veterans who are appealing low disability ratings made by the government."  BigLaw Firms Unite in Pro Bono Effort for Wounded Soldiers  New York Lawyer  June 19, 2007  By Tresa Baldas  The National Law Journal

There is a legitimate concern that legal efforts on behalf of veterans may result in a new cottage industry for attorneys.  It is understood that despite congressional efforts, the veterans benefits and entitlements process is adversarial.  Still, some approaches to resolve veterans legal issue are likely to perpetuate the adversarial system.

Pro-bono law clinics are a great advantage to both the civilian community, military families and students.  But it is clear that some attorneys may wish to be paid fees for services, deducted from the veteran's entitlement.  Furthermore it is clear that veterans are entitled to representation...in adversarial and non adversarial cases.  It is their civil right to representation.  Strange that those charged with crimes are entitled to an attorney free of charge.  Why not share such entitlement with veterans in a manner that may result in ongoing improvement of the discharge process and veterans assumption of benefits and entitlements?

What if enlistees could learn to advocate for their fellow soldiers and sailors who have been discharged?  This may bridge the DoD and the Veterans Affairs so that they may work in sync to improve (1)  The collection and maintenance of medical records from enlistment to discharge  (2)  Provide an additional pathway to solvency for the appeals process  (3)  Lend opportunity to enlistees to acquire a new and needed skill to serve our country  (4)  Seek improved protocols to serve our military families (5) and track service related harms and injuries.

Following is an approach that may both resolve the need for veterans legal assistance while providing a less adversarial approach to representation:  We would like to explore the possibility of the DoD installing an additional Military Occupational Specialty or function of the General Counsel to serve veterans as trained attorneys or advocates.  Such installment could result in a better understanding and greater efficiency for veterans and the VA and could benefit from the established network of veterans service organizations.

Furthermore, with todays technology, it is possible to create a digital record of health and service from the moment of enlistment on.  Such data would enable us to cross-reference service-related injuries with others, track and trace health issues related to service and distinguish between those that are not service related.

What are your thoughts on more complete record keeping from the moment of enlistment, new MOS specializing in veterans issues or new installments for the General Counsel and legal clinics for military families?  Perhaps all should be considered as components of a more comprehensive approach to resolving veterans legal issues.


Tara Sue Clark
Executive Director
Veterans Foundation Inc.

The Veterans Law Project is the premier source for legal information and assistance for military families.  By listing on our network you will receive referrals and opportunities to help others and educate students.

If you are an attorney who would like to offer pro bono legal services to military families, get listed in our Legal Resources Guide which will be posted online.

Or

Start a Veterans Law Clinic in your area.

If you would like to serve on a VLP board to assist in furthering the mission of the Veterans Law Project, let us know in your correspondence.

Simply provide us with the following:

Personal or University description (Bio/Resume/Purpose)
Mailing Address
Phone Number
Email
States where you are authorized to practice/teach law
and Areas of expertise
And whether you would like to join a VLP board.

Email all of the above to Veterans Foundation Inc.
or comment below.

On Tuesday, April 17, 2007, the Subcommittee on Disability Assistance & Memorial Affairs of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs will conduct a hearing on H.R. 67, Veterans Outreach Improvement Act of 2007; H.R. 1435, Department of Veterans Affairs Claims Backlog Reduction Act of 2007; H.R. 1444, To direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to make interim benefit payments uner certain remanded claims, and for other purposes; H.R. 1490, To provide for a presumption of service-connectedness for certain claims  for benefits under the laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.  This hearing will be held at 2:00 p.m. in room 334 of the Cannon House Office Building (CHOB)

Things have been going great with the Veterans Law Project at North Carolina Central School of Law .  We are fielding inquiries daily and many of the requests for assistance involve the filing of veterans initial claims at the VA regional office level.  We have 19 law students involved in the Veterans Law Project from both the University of North Carolina Central School of Law and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.  The course will be expanding into a three credit, 20 hours of  classroom time at the North Carolina Central University School of Law.  Students from North Carolina Central School of Law will have to do 100 hours of clinical work to achieve three credit hours.  The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill students are doing their work for the Veterans Law Project Pro Bono.
 

by Craig Kabatchnick

For several years it was my desire to initiate a legal clinic at a North Carolina law school to provide legal assistance to veterans and their dependents with respect to VA claims of various types.  In light of recent world events and the continuing flow of American casualties from Iraq and an even larger aging veteran population, there is a significant need for such legal services - especially in light of legal fee limitations in federal law which discourage private attorneys from participating in veteran claims matters. The establishment of a clinic that will capitalize on eager intellectual assets (law students) and unlimited research resources, under the direction of highly skilled managing attorneys, seems to be a logical way to meet that need.  Establishing the clinic in Durham, NC is especially appropriate since a major VA hospital is located there and also because of its proximity to North Carolina Central University, thereby providing an excellent opportunity for law student involvement at all levels of the VA claims adjudication process.  Furthermore, North Carolina Central School of Law, a historically African-American institution, would greatly enhance clinical activity involving minority veterans, since a significant percentage of veterans are in fact African-American. 

By reason of my extensive involvement in veterans law, I felt especially equipped to lead in establishing and maintaining such a clinic.  Not only do I have experience in the General Counsel’s Office of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, but I have also been involved with numerous veterans claims in private practice.  In other words, I know the ins and outs of veterans law from both perspectives – the veterans’ and the government’s.

From a cost/benefit analysis perspective this clinic could be initiated through private funding, donations from foundations or otherwise.  The initial legal assistance could be provided at minimal expense in view of the large number of claims to be processed and the inevitable interest among law students in acquiring “hands on” experience.  The goal of the clinic’s supervising attorney is to serve as a full-time professor, teach two or three classes or seminars a week, and be available five days a week to assist groups of students in their training and their handling of veterans claims at all levels of the VA claims adjudication process. The cost for employment of a full-time professor and member of the staff at North Carolina Central University School of Law,  along with a modest support staff, would be quite reasonable.  It is my hope that an adequate grant from a foundation could be obtained to cover any costs for a full-time professor, a second attorney, as well as for office and clinical space for this and clinics at other schools.

Participating law students will assist with the screening of files and sorting incoming claims and documents necessary for claims development, interview veterans as to the validity of their claims, assist veterans with the technical aspects of filing their claims, perform legal research, prepare supporting legal briefs, help a claimant file all applicable forms, assure that the initial development of a claim is completed within the time limits imposed by the VA, and perform whatever other tasks are required to successfully move the veterans’ claims through the related adjudication process. The students providing assistance would receive credit for clinical study under arrangements between the clinic and the North Carolina Central School of Law.  Secretarial help will be necessary for monitoring telephone calls, setting up appointments, and completing documents.

Furthermore, not only could the law students help veterans to develop their claims, these students could assist in ordering further medical examinations when needed, and insuring that the VA applies its broadened duty to assist a veteran in the development of their claim required by the Veterans Claims Assistance Act of 2000, as well as case law.  Prior to filing an appeal with the Board of Veterans Appeals, which is staffed solely by VA attorneys, the students could assist with the filing of a Notice of Disagreement with an adverse VA rating decision, whereupon a statement of the case is issued by the VA explaining the rationale for the VA rating decision.  Thereupon an appeal to the Board of Veterans Appeals would be filed with the assistance of the law students under the guidance of the Clinical Director.  I believe that I would be of immense help in training and guiding law students, in the processing of these claims in-house, based on my experience in my family firm, as well as Everett & Everett, where for more than 18 years I primarily focused successfully on medico-legal issues, as well as the vast experience I obtained after serving more than five years as a member of the Appellate Litigation Staff Group in the Office of the General Counsel of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs. 

Veterans in this country, and most especially in the state of North Carolina, are completely unable to obtain the assistance of legal counsel in the processing of their VA claims due to the fee limitation placed on veterans’ claims, dating back to the Civil War.  Students will be attracted to this program because they will gain hands-on experience handling claims, under the supervision of an experienced attorney in the area of VA law, involving such issues as compensation and rating determinations, home loan guarantees, widow’s benefits, hospital care/nursing home care, eligibility for vocational rehabilitation, and medical malpractice.

This clinic can be handled under the supervision and training of one full-time  attorney with VA experience performing as a Professor and supervisor and perhaps one additional assisting attorney, if needed, and the requisite support staff to assist with intake and filing, and of course the law students at North Carolina Central School of Law, who will fill that great void and great need for legal assistance to get these initial claims developed in such a nature that they are ripe for eventual judicial review at the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims level, or at United States District Court.   

Under these circumstances I concluded that some type of center, clinic, or institute is needed in North Carolina from which veterans and their dependents in this State and elsewhere can obtain the legal assistance which is necessary for the preparation and submission of their claims.  The level of legal training necessary to render this assistance can be attained by law students with a modest amount of legal training which can be achieved through classes at the law school on a weekly basis. 

North Carolina Central School of Law has distinguished itself with its in-house legal clinics and public interest programs.  North Carolina Central School of Law students could play a very major role in this regard, because they could be so readily trained in classes or otherwise to discuss potential claims with clients and provide assistance in preparing documents and assembling evidence.  In order for this in-house clinic to function properly, it would only take a single experienced attorney, with VA experience, to serve as full-time supervisor and professor and to train them on the VA claims adjudication appeal process. 

The rewards of this program are immense both to the students, and our society, who owes so much to those who risked their lives for our country.  The clinic stands to assist large numbers of injured service members, qualifying veterans, and their respective families, and will immediately help those individuals currently serving in Iraq, as well as those who served in Vietnam, Korea, and World War II.

This is the home blog for the Veterans Law Project.
Clinical programs shall be networked here for veterans and survivors seeking legal solutions. 

Law Schools and Veteran Service organizations  throughout the United States are invited to participate with the VLP.  Students and staff shall maintain online journals and correspondence to veterans and relative parties in their execution of  duties and clinic studies.

Learn more about the VLP here.
Find an active clinic in your area here...more to become active soon.
Support the VLP!  Email us here.

Stay posted for more information here at this site or at our forum page

Project Salute

North Carolina Central University Veteran's Law Clinic

Veterans Foundation Inc.
Raleigh
11 February 2007

                                                                                             
                Year 1        Year 2        Year 3         Year 4            TOTALS
                                                   
Attorney 1            85,000        90,100        95,506        101236.36            371,842
Attorney 2            85,000        90,100        95,506        101236.36            371,842
Paralegal                40,000        42,400        44,944        47640.64            174,985
Fringe Benefits            52,500        55,650        58,989        40028.36            207,167
Research Assistants            6,000        6,000        6,000        6,000            24,000
Travel                15,000        15,000        15,000        15,000            60,000
Equipment            40,000                                    40,000
Maintenance Agreements        7,000        7,000        7,000        7,000            28,000
Postage                1,000        1,000        1,000        1,000            4,000
Office Supplies Software        20,000        20,000        20,000        20,000            80,000
Litigation Expenses            10,000        10,000        10,000        10,000            40,000
Library Purchases and updates        30,000        10,000        10,000        10,000            60,000
                                                   
                                                   
TOTAL                391,500        347,250        363,945        359,141.72            1,461,847