According to a new report from the Pentagaon “1 in 5 American servicemen and women who have been in Iraq are coming back with brain injuries.”. The same report says that “17 percent of the soldiers returning to war could have a traumatic brain injury”. Presumably, the soldiers returning with TBI run a substantial risk of having their injuries exacerbated by further service.
Not every traumatic brain injury is totally disabling, but many are, or at least make it very difficult for the victim to function. I have had a number of disability clients with TBI, and I have seen a wide range of effects, many of which can be pretty subtle. Expect the Department of Veterans Affairs to turn down a lot of these vets when they apply for service related disability ratings.
Until this past June, it was practically impossible for a person applying for veterans benefits to get legal counsel at the first stages of the process. That’s often where it’s most important, because the later stages of the process rely heavily on the record that is built at the first stage. The reason it was impossible to get counsel in the first stage is that it was illegal to charge a fee for representation at that stage. Prior to that, there was a $10.00 fee cap (you read that right) for representation at all stages. I learn from the internet today that Congress finally changed the system to make it more like the Social Security system, which allows a claimant legal counsel at all stages and also allows a claimant to authorize direct payment of a statutorily regulated fee to his or her attorney.
A lot of vets who apply for veteran’s benefits also apply for social security disability. If the VA makes a finding that a vet is 100% disabled, that finding is not binding on social security. It would be an act of justice if that were changed. You should only have to prove your case once, it seems to me. (You couldn’t make a favorable social security ruling binding on VA because VA only takes account of service related disabilities.)
Vets can get good medical treatment from the VA, but one unfortunate side effect of that treatment is that it is often harder to get the evidence you need to support a vet’s claim for social security benefits. Social security judges depend heavily on reports from treating physicians, meaning doctors who have a lasting relationship with the patient. My experience is that it’s hard to get such reports from the VA because 1) though there may be no rigid rule against giving them, there seems to be some sort of policy discouraging them, and 2) it is often the case that the vet does not have a specific individual responsible for providing treatment (i.e., no real “treating physician”), so there is no one to ask for a report. So far I have personally been lucky with cases involving vets, but it would not be hard for any social security judge so minded to turn down a good claim and write a bullet proof decision making a successful appeal unlikely.
So among other fallout from this war, we are likely to have a huge number of individuals with brain injuries that will seriously affect their ability to function, who will likely be left to shift for themselves by the country that sent them to war for no reason.
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