Law Firms Rushing to Veterans’ Aid

Increasing numbers of civilian attorneys are stepping up to the plate to assist veterans 

But increasing numbers of civilian attorneys are stepping up to the plate to assist veterans.

“The need is staggering,” said Gordon Erspamer, a Morrison and Foerster attorney in Walnut Creek, Calif., who has worked on veterans’ cases since the 1970s. (Lynne Marek, The National Law Journal)

Morrison and Foerster is engaged in an unprecedented, class action, pro bono case on behalf of 100,000s of vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  Lynne Marek of The National Law Journal has a great piece on attorneys battling the VA on behalf of veterans…     

Walsh, a gruff Army Vietnam veteran, maintains an informal network of attorneys who know what is becoming common knowledge on Capital Hill: That the VA is systemically operating to deny returning veterans aid and benefits.

“To understand how the VA operates is to see a culture of denial. There are regulations in place to protect veterans, and they ought to be followed, ” said Walsh.

Walsh is representing Wisconsin Navy veteran Keith Roberts who is a victim of VA retaliation against Roberts for Roberts’ repeatedly criticizing the VA as fraudulent and incompetent. In the middle of Roberts’ claim, the VA ignored VA regulations and went straight to U.S. Atty Stephen Biskupic to indict and convict Roberts on federal wire fraud on the merits of his disputed VA benefits claim.

In one of the many ironies of the Bush administration, those most opposed to assisting veterans are those most dedicated to making and sustaining war.

Paul Sullivan of Veterans for Common Sense is another veteran (and former VA project manager) who now helps other veterans obtain the respect and the benefits to which they are entitled against the Bush administration taking its cues from the veterans’ benefits-hostile American Enterprise Institute scholar, Dr. Sally Satel.

Writes Sullivan is his blog: “Our 4,077 U.S. military deaths in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are the worst possible consequence of military service. Yet what about our 250,000 wounded, injured, and ill combat survivors and their families who suffer for a lifetime?”

As the veterans criminal and civil cases increasingly land in federal court and the backlogs of veterans cases pile up at the VA, some observers see major revisions coming of the Veterans Judicial Review Act, the legislation intended to streamline the process for veterans of obtaining their needed and deserved treatment and benefits.

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