Full Trial Moves Ahead in Lawsuit Against VA, OEF/OIF Veterans with PTSD Sought

Latest updates on this and related VA/Army lawsuits posted in "As Second Legal Attempt Fails to Force VA Hand on Disability Claims Processing, Army Sued Over Discharged Veteran PTSD Disability Ratings." -- Ilona Meagher, 12/17/08

If you're a long-time reader, you're probably aware of the class action lawsuit filed last July against the Veterans Administration by two veterans groups. One of them, Veterans for Common Sense, is helmed by tireless former VA employee and veterans advocate Paul Sullivan. His important update and call for help in extended.


In educational interest, article(s) quoted from extensively.

Dear VCS members,

I am writing to update you about our class action lawsuit, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth v. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. We are challenging the VA's failure to provide prompt mental health care to veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and VA’s failure to promptly and accurately process disability compensation claims for PTSD.

The week of March 3, the judge held a hearing about the quality and timeliness of mental health care given to suicidal veterans. After four days of testimony, the judge ordered a full trial on all of our issues to start on April 21, 2008. This is a very quick timeline, and we hope this means that we will receive a final decision from the judge in the next few months.

In order to put on our strongest case, VCS and our attorneys need your help in the next few days. The attorneys for VA challenged our right as a group to sue VA. We need our VCS veteran members to contact us if they have either of these two problems:

• You are diagnosed with PTSD and have experienced problems getting timely VA mental health care for their PTSD or for potential suicide.


• You filed a VA claim for PTSD and have problems getting your PTSD disability compensation claim approved by VA.

If you are a veteran with either of these specific types of problems, then please send VCS a new email with your contact information in the next several days, even if you already sent one in the past. VCS will then forward your information to our attorneys.

If you are willing to talk to our attorneys about your problems with the VA, then I strongly encourage you to contact our attorneys directly in the next few days. Our attorneys need to show the judge that the problems we are complaining about are system-wide problems and not just isolated to a few veterans.

This call went out last week, actually, so if you are one who would wish to make contact with them with your story, email Paul as soon as possible. Additional contact info in extended.

Continuing:

Our attorneys have been working on this case for more than a year. I have met them all, and they are friendly and understanding when it comes to speaking with veterans and families about confidential issues. Your participation now could make a huge difference in the lives of the hundreds of thousands of veterans fighting with the VA for many years.

Danny Brome, dbrome@dralegal.org
Kasey Corbit, kcorbit@dralegal.org
Disability Rights Advocates
Phone: (510) 665-8644
Fax: (510) 665-8511
TTY: (510) 665-8716
www.dralegal.org

For information about our class lawsuit, please go to this web site: www.veteransPTSDclassaction.org

Thank you for your continued support of our important lawsuit.

Paul.
Paul Sullivan
Executive Director
Veterans for Common Sense
Post Office Box 15514
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 558-4553
Paul@VeteransForCommonSense.org
www.VeteransForCommonSense.org

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