CUE...Errors In Applying The Law

With so many VA claims, (CUE) clear and unmistakeable errors in the law happen all the time.

 

CUE

  CUE means the VA did something in your claim which is a clear violation of their own laws. One example can be when a veteran files a claim, the claim remains open until they adjudicate it.

  Many times, the claim will sit in a file for years before someone gets around to deciding the issues. Once in a great while, a veteran will submit a claim, and nothing will ever be done about it. Years later, the veteran may submit a new claim for the same disability. If the VA grants the claim, the effective date of the award should be the date of the old claim, not the new one.

  This applies only to claims that were never adjudicated. If the VA did anything in the way of rejecting the claim, then it has been adjudicated. I often suggest to every veteran to save every letter or piece of paper they receive from the VA. That way, if you do file for the same disability years after you haven’t heard about an original claim, you have the proof in hand. If you don’t save your paper work, the VA may say you never filed, and you wont be able to prove that you did.

  This situation is really not a mistake in the law, but a mistake in applying the law because they didn’t adjudicate your claim. In another case, a veteran was rated at 70% for PTSD and filed for unemployability based on the fact that he couldn’t work. Voc Rehab had turned him down for training, and he was on medication. The VA denied him the 100% rating because they said his isolation from society (typical among vets with PTSD) was self-imposed.

  The Code of Federal Regulations doesn’t say anything about self-imposed isolation, as far as I know. The only way you couldn’t have self-imposed isolation is if you were in prison in solitary confinement. The VA never mentioned anything about his inability to work or anything about his work history. The total isolation and withdrawal from society due to PTSD rates 100%.

  Not only did the VA violate the law by not examining him for his ability to work, they made up some fiction about his isolation. This is really grabbing at straws on their part, and is a clear violation of their own laws. This claim went to the Veterans Court of Appeals, and was remanded back to the Regional Office to be fixed. It had been going on since 1989. In the end, the veteran was granted 100% going back to 1989. He ended up getting somewhere around 60,000 in back pay.

  CUE can be hard to prove, but your service organization will probably be able to spot clear violations in the law, and follow up with you. If the service organization offers to take the case to the Veterans Court of Appeals, you probably have a good chance because they wont take a case they don’t think they can win.

  Any veteran rated at 70% for PTSD should file for unemployability when they can’t work.

   If you’re not sure about CUE in your claim, ask someone who knows the law. And never give up!

 

 PTSD Novel: MIchael In Hell and other Dennis Latham Books

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Regional Office Claims



This is a leaflet dropped from a plane in the Street Without Joy in late 1967. I picked one of them up after the plane
dropped them on a village. I'm not sure what it says but I figure it had something to do with what a good life the VC would
have if they surrendered.

Regional Office Claims

  A veteran lawyer gives this advice: "As a rule always try to deal with your claim at the REGIONAL LEVEL!!! Most claims that get up to the Board of Veterans Appeals are there for years and then are simply remanded BACK to the Regional Level anyway! "

  I figure this lawyer doesn’t have much experience on dealing with VA claims, so I disagree with the above statement.

  The Regional Office will almost always never change a decision against a veteran. You can disagree at the Regional Office level and months later get turned down again. The BVA will order the changes to fix the mistakes the Regional Office makes and then remand it back to the Regional Office for them to fix those mistakes. This will take time again that many older veterans don't need to waste.

  Because there are so many mistakes by the Regional Offices, it often takes a long time to get a BVA hearing. But if you have a legit claim, the BVA will almost always catch the mistake and order it to be fixed, if you were wronged by the Regional Office.

  My advice is if you are turned down by the Regional Office for a claim or an increase on a current disability, immediately appeal to the BVA. Skip the Regional Office. They will probably not change the original decision. You may several months or even years of waiting.

Sleep Apnea Is A Serious Health Threat

This self-medication chair sleep position would not be a good cure for sleep apnea.

 

(I’ve been asked to write on my experience with sleep apnea. I figured I had sleep apnea, but totally ignored it for several years. I hope my experience with certain issues may help others find out if they have the same problems.)

It’s been estimated that up to 70% of people have sleep apnea. If you snore, chances are you are one of them.

I’ve been sleeping as an astronaut for the past 84 months. I wear what looks like a pilot’s mask with a hose running to a machine that forces air under pressure through my nose and down my throat to keep my tongue from blocking the airway.

I sometimes grind my teeth so I also wear (sometimes) a mouthpiece like a boxer so I don’t grind my teeth down to stubs. Before I had the mask, I would spit the mouthpiece each night and find it on the floor, across the room, or stuck in my hair. I no longer wear the mouthpiece and the teeth grinding has slack off, I guess.

I go to bed each night feeling like some nut on a psycho ward. It’s really not all that bad except for cleaning the mask daily because I don’t put it on until the last moments before we’re going to sleep. What I hate is the knowledge that I have to wear it because I will probably never sleep normal again. Sometimes, I do a count down from ten like I’m being launched into space or say something like, "I can see our house from up here."

The mask is probably saving my life.

Before Vietnam, I could sleep for eight hours without a problem. I remember people telling me I made noise sometimes, but I slept so sound that people used to stand me up and dance with me and I wouldn’t wake up.

After the war, I slept two hours at a time and often had nightmares about being back in the war. Often the nightmares were in real time. I kept saying in the dream that I wasn’t ready for another tour. When this is added to the condition where my tongue would slip back and block my airway, I wasn’t sleeping at all. Well, I did sleep, sitting up for ten or twenty minutes at a time.

The first time I was tested for sleep apnea, I found out that I held my breath 24 times an hour and my heart slowed to 39 beats per minute at least twice. I could have died in my sleep due to the slow heart beat.

After the mask was in place, I held my breath five times, which is considered normal. Plus, I no longer made a bunch of animal noises. I had this test done at a private clinic because I have other hospital insurance. I did have an appointment at the VA to be tested, but it was over a year wait, and when the time came I was out of town and missed it. Plus, who wants to wait a year to be tested for something that could kill you while you sleep.

There are drawbacks. I’ve never slept on my back. The best way to sleep with the C-pap machine is on your back. I can do it now but I had trouble adjusting, and sometimes I still sleep on my side.

It plays hell with your sinuses. I’ve pretty much had messed up sinuses ever since I’ve been using the machine. Sometimes, I sneeze all day and my nose runs.

If you travel, you need to drag the thing along. Plus, you need to clean the mask and hose daily with soap and water. I usually clean mine right before bed.

Plus, the whole setup costs about 2,000. So if you’re 50% or above get it from the VA if you don’t have outside insurance.

I do sleep better, deeper and a few hours longer, about 5 or 6 hours a night, compared to my usual 3 hours, but it really is a pain in the butt.

There are alternatives

The doctor told me I have sleep apnea because my tongue relaxes and slips back to cover my airway. He said they could operate on me, split my jawbone in the center of my chin, take a piece out, and force my jaw back together. I guess it could be like a facelift and pull all the sag out of your jaw if it sags.

This in not only major surgery, it will also change your appearance and probably make your chin pointed. It is also not guaranteed to work and could be a waste of time because the tongue may still slip.

"I’m not crazy about my face right now," I told the doctor. "But I’m used to it and I don’t want to look like a ferret."

I’ve also heard they have some kind of tubes like Dixie straws that they embed in the roof of your mouth to stop snoring or breath holding. I don’t think I could stand having straws stuck into the roof of my mouth.

I believe they should come up with a kind of boxer’s mouthpiece that will hold your tongue in place so it doesn’t relax backwards.

Sleep Apnea is serious. It can cause high blood pressure because the heart is without oxygen each time you hold your breath during sleep. This can lead to an enlarged heart and congestive heart failure.

By the way, my condition, holding my breath 24 times an hour, is considered to be mild sleep apnea. Some people hold their breath 50 and 100 times an hour. Some people also have to take oxygen at the same time.

I suggest that if you snore, have the sleep apnea test just to make sure you aren’t holding your breath.

Dennis Latham Books to make you laugh, curse, or go madd-d-d.

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