Law suit message to VA "you can't treat them like crap" after this again

Attorney leading suit a veteran in battling VA
C.W. Nevius

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Gordon Erspamer, the attorney who brought the lawsuit against the Department of Veterans Affairs that went to trial this week in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, is a big, unresponsive government agency's worst nightmare.

He's a rainmaker attorney for a major firm in the city who has set aside time to take legal action that doesn't earn a penny. And besides that, he's got a compelling and personal back story and a chip on his shoulder to prove it.

Erspamer's cause since the late '70s has been the rights of armed forces veterans, and this week's trial has the VA squirming over a shocking rate of suicides among vets and has captured the national spotlight.

The trial led the CBS Evening News this week, and Erspamer says he's getting thousands of e-mails and calls from veterans and media outlets.

Five years ago, he admits, the American public probably couldn't have told you what post-traumatic stress disorder was. Now they are not only aware of the number of vets who are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with PTSD - Erspamer estimates it will be one-third of the 1.7 million who served - but they are ready to look critically at how they've been treated.

"If you add up the veterans' suicides among those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and compare it to the total combat deaths, the veteran suicides are higher," says Erspamer, who introduced a VA e-mail at the trial that showed an average of 18 vets a day are committing suicide. "The VA doesn't want that out."

Erspamer is working the case pro bono with the support of his employer, the high-powered international law firm Morrison & Foerster. This isn't his area of interest. He's a well-regarded partner in the firm who is considered an expert in energy litigation.

But although the case has already taken him away from his regular practice for almost four months, Erspamer says this is only the beginning of the journey.

"I have no doubt in my mind that this will go to the Supreme Court," he said in an interview this week. "But this is not only legally correct, it is morally correct. For me, this is personal."
go here for more

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/24/BA3K10AIB1.DTL