Pro-bono attorneys stepping up to help veterans with claims

VA Partners with American Bar Association and Legal Services Corporation to Launch a Pilot Program to Help Veterans Receive Decisions Faster and Reduce Claims Backlog
Pro-Bono Pilot Program to Assist Veterans with Developing their Disability Claims
WASHINGTON (Aug. 9, 2013) – The Department of Veterans Affairs, the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) announced today a new partnership and pilot program aimed at reducing the claims backlog and making it easier for unrepresented Veterans to receive assistance developing their claims for disability pay.

“Ending the backlog is an ‘all hands on deck’ effort that requires teamwork, both in and out of government,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “This partnership between VA, ABA and LSC is aimed at surging resources to deliver earned benefits to Veterans more quickly.”

In the coming months, ABA and LSC attorneys will provide free assistance to a targeted group of unrepresented Veterans who request their help gathering and obtaining evidence required by law to support their disability claims.

The development of the claim is often the longest part of the process that determines whether a Veteran is entitled to VA compensation. These steps can take more than 200 days in the rating decision process. The pilot will offer pro bono attorney assistance to Veterans with claims pending at the St. Petersburg and Chicago Regional Offices who do not currently have an authorized representative.

Veterans will choose whether to accept this pro-bono assistance. Similar Veterans with claims pending at other VA regional offices may also be considered for the pilot, if warranted.

"The ABA is proud to take the lead in connecting veterans with pro bono attorneys who will help them receive the aid our nation owes them for their selfless courage,” said ABA President Laurel Bellows. “We hope that our initial focus on Chicago and St. Petersburg can swiftly be expanded across the nation."

The claims selected for this pilot program, which are currently -- or will soon be -- part of the claims backlog, will vary in terms of complexity and degree of completeness. VA will accredit the attorneys who choose to participate, and the ABA and LSC will provide them with specialized training that will enable them to help evaluate and develop Veterans claims and make those claims ready for a rating decision. The two initial pilot sites were selected based on proximity to ABA headquarters, and the opportunity for the biggest impact on the backlog.

In the coming months, VA will identify eligible Veterans to participate in the pilot program and send letters advising them of all their options for representation to help them advance their claims - from Veteran Service Organizations, attorneys and claims agents, to pro bono attorneys participating in this pilot.

The VA letter will inform Veterans of a 1-800 hotline and website to connect them to an attorney who is willing to assist with their claim, free of charge.

Under the partnership, the ABA and LSC will match interested Veterans and attorneys on several factors, including geographic location, complexity of the claim and the Veteran’s and attorney’s preferences on the nature and scope of representation.

VA is continuing to implement several initiatives to meet the Department’s goal to eliminate the claims backlog in 2015. As a result of these initiatives, VA’s total claims inventory has dropped to its lowest levels since March 2011.

The number of claims in the VA backlog – claims pending more than 125 days – has been reduced by 18 percent, compared to the highest point in March 2013.

Mobile law office helping vets get benefits

Low-income guidelines used by Project SALUTE

Project SALUTE qualifies low-income veterans by using 200 percent of the federal poverty level. For 2008, that translates to the following:

$20,800 Single individual

$28,000 Family of two

$35,200 Family of three

$42,400 Family of four

$49,600 Family of five

$56,800 Family of six

$64,000 Family of seven

$71,200 Family of eight

Source: Mark Gordon, UDM School of Law Dean

Mobile law office helping vets get benefits
By Rick Vasquez, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, April 3, 2008


WASHINGTON — The University of Detroit Mercy School of Law has launched a national tour of its Mobile Law Office to provide low-income veterans free assistance or representation on federal benefits issues, and is training local attorneys to continue assisting veterans on a local level.

Project SALUTE, which stands for Students And Lawyers (Assisting) U.S. Troops Everywhere, will make stops in cities across the country, and has just finished touring Florida. Tentative dates for Atlanta have been set and additional dates will be added as the tour continues. Updates are available at www.law.udmercy.edu.

“We have had tremendous success since we began our national tour in February,” said Mark Gordon, the school’s dean. “We have seen more than 500 veterans and have trained well over 100 attorneys to handle their cases pro bono.”

Project SALUTE first offers veterans an informational session on getting federal benefits. Interviews are then conducted, giving veterans a chance to state their case. Local attorneys are also offered the opportunity to obtain continuing legal education credits by attending a training session on handling federal benefit issues.

“Based on the training, we then refer some of the cases,” said Gordon. “We refer cases only to those attorneys who are going to do it pro bono.”

Project SALUTE only provides assistance on cases relating to federal benefit issues.

go here for the rest

http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=53773

Lawyers doing what government should be doing for wounded

Law Firms Rushing to Veterans' Aid

Morrison and Foerster is engaged in an unprecedented, class action, pro bono case on behalf of 100000s of vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Pro-bono lawyers battle for wounded veterans with PTSD

Advocates for Vets


New York Lawyer
October 26, 2007

By Thomas Adcock
New York Law Journal

The City Bar Justice Center, the pro bono affiliate of the New York City Bar Association, launched the Veterans Legal Clinic this week in concert with attorneys from 10 Manhattan firms.

The new program will provide free counsel to low-income men and women returned home to the metropolitan area from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - some of whom are homeless, and many suffering from severe physical and mental health problems.

One of a handful of such clinics around the country, the New York initiative was established in response to the anticipated needs of returnees from the "most sustained combat operations since the Vietnam era," as conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were characterized in a joint statement by two New York state Assembly committees that held fact-finding public hearings in May.

The committees on mental health and veterans affairs said further in their statement that today's military personnel have especially high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder due to "lengthy and multiple tours of duty, decreased mortality rates and traumatic brain injuries."

Left untreated, post-traumatic stress disorder could lead to "devastating ramifications, including unemployment, substance abuse, homelessness or involvement with the criminal justice system," according to the statement.

On Wednesday afternoon, nearly 100 private firm volunteer lawyers gathered at city bar headquarters on West 44th Street for a three-hour training session in the fundamentals of Veterans Benefits Administration law and practical tips on filing for disability benefits.
go here for the rest
http://www.nylawyer.com/display.php/file=/probono/news/07/102607a