Noteboom The Law Firm

VA Administrative Failures Means Paying Attorney Fees

February 1, 2011 - The Department of Veterans Affairs was recently hit with a somewhat unexpected bill: $19,594.80 in veteran's attorney's fees. This obligation was imposed following a decision from the Court of Appeals for Veterans Court's (CAVC) 3-judge panel. The panel found in favor of Cleveland Harvey, a veteran, and the VA subsequently failed to process its remand order in a reasonable amount of time, as federal law requires.

Harvey's original issue concerned attempting to recover compensation in lieu of retirement pay. The Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA) denied Harvey's original claim that his compensation benefits should have had an earlier starting date than what the Department of Veterans Appeals (VA) used as an effective date. Two years after that denial the CAVC granted Harvey an earlier effective date for Harvey's compensation. The CAVC reversed the BVA's decision and remanded the case to have Harvey's compensation benefits reconfigured from the earlier, CAVC imposed, effective date.

Following the order to remand, the CAVC described the VA's subsequent actions as a "parade of administrative miseries." The VA engaged in a series of mistakes and problems that included:

• Four months' time between the CAVC's order and the BVA requesting Harvey's claims file, to which there was no explanation for;
• Harvey's file changing hands and offices multiple times, to include being forwarded to the wrong regional office;
• A practical failure in electronic record-keeping used to track compensation claims;
• The neglect of vital paperwork containing essential information needed to compute Harvey's benefits.

Harvey waited a full year for the VA to deliver his owed compensation. It never happened. He finally filed a petition for extraordinary relief in March of last year, and the CAVC heard oral arguments in September. Finally the Court had enough and ordered the VA to pay Harvey's attorney's fees because of their irresponsible actions.