Author : Jessica L. Wherry
Release : 2017
Genre :
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : /5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Interminable Parade Rest by : Jessica L. Wherry

Download or read book Interminable Parade Rest written by Jessica L. Wherry. This book was released on 2017. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Problems with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have been widely reported in the news and have perhaps contributed to the growth of law school veterans clinics and veterans law scholarship. By statute, veterans are eligible for disability compensation benefits for illness or injury connected to the veteran's service in the armed forces. The process of seeking benefits is intended to be non-adversarial requiring VA to assist veterans in developing their claims. Unfortunately, VA's nagging problems including poor management and a lack of accountability produce well-documented and devastatingly negative effects on veterans. These effects are not limited to veterans receiving disability benefits, but extends to veterans who never make it past the claim stage because their claims are denied.Typically, service medical records are used to establish service-connection. When those records are unobtainable, there are alternative sources of medical or lay evidence that can be used to establish service-connection. However, when service medical records are lost or destroyed and there is no other contemporaneous medical evidence, the veteran likely suffers an absolute bar to receiving a favorable decision about service-connection. Any decision made without service medical records is necessarily based on a lack of evidence rather than an evaluation of the evidence. My article responds to this problem by proposing administrative, statutory, and judicial remedies to give the veteran a presumption of service-connection. This presumption would require the veteran to provide two forms of alternative evidence, including the veteran's own statements, to support service-connection. The government would then have the opportunity to rebut the presumption by proving impossibility of the existence of the event, injury, or disease.