so
hi everyone and welcome to another edition of cck live my name is christian mctarnigan and this week
i'm joined by caitlin degnan and amy odom and in this video we're going to be explaining how to
pick the right disability attorney for your cavc appeal or for your appeal to the united states
court of appeals for veterans claims so i'm going to start with a quick overview and then i'm going
to kick it over to caitlin and amy but the cabc is a federal court that's located in washington dc
that is specifically dedicated to adjudicating the appeals of claimants who have been unsuccessful in
their cases at the board of veterans appeals or the board or the bva so an important deadline
to note i'm going to hit it right off the bat is after receiving your board decision you have
120 days to file an appeal to the cabc so just be sure that you're filing that appeal timely if you
disagree or you don't like something about the board decision so the cabc is not a part of the
department of veterans affairs the board is but the cabc is a federal court and it's not it's an
independent court that has exclusive jurisdiction over the va the veterans administration
so it's important to note that when you get to court the va the secretary they're going
to have an attorney that's defending the agency's decision and arguing against your position that
the va did anything wrong so there's no longer a duty to assist the record is closed you can't add
evidence to the record once you get to the cabc um also the va is now having an attorney represent
their position they're not there in sort of the uh how they're supposed to be when you're working at
the agency helping you through your case helping you get the benefits that you deserve it kind
of switches tax once you get to the cabc so the judges at the cabc are appointed by the president
and confirmed by the senate some cases at the cevc are going to be decided by one judge
others are going to be decided by three or what's referred to as a panel or the panel can be all
of the judges as well which would be referred to as on bank so that's a little bit about the cavc
so amy i want to ask you a question do you need representation when you appeal a case to the cabc
no it's not required a veteran or a claimant can always file an appeal to the cavc on their own
that's called representing yourself pro se but the process of appealing to the veterans court just
like any court can be really difficult to navigate um and there are qualified advocates out there
that have the experience and the knowledge of how to navigate a court appeal including like
what are the deadlines are what's the what are the documents that they need to file and
what are the types of arguments that um the veterans court is likely to be persuaded by
and another thing to keep in mind is just because you're not represented by an attorney doesn't mean
that the va isn't going to be represented by an attorney the va is going to be represented by
an attorney in every case regardless of whether the veteran has an attorney or not so let's say
i'm a claimant a veteran a widow who wants a representative how do i choose the right one
well the first thing is that you have to make sure that the person that you choose is admitted
to practice before the court if the if the advocate isn't admitted to practice before
the court the court will not recognize that person but you also want to make sure that
you're getting somebody who's well-versed in the complexities of the va system has an understanding
of veterans law and has some experience litigating cases before the veterans court
and an important thing to keep in mind is that
an attorney or an advocate may be uh accredited by the va and able to represent people before
the va itself but not admitted to the veterans court these are two separate um processes that
advocates have to go through and only attorneys who are barred meaning they pass the bar exams
examined have been licensed to practice law can apply to practice before the veterans court
or a non-attorney who is practicing under the supervision of a licensed attorney can be
can be admitted to practice at the veterans court so you want to make sure that whoever you choose
meets one of those two criteria so caitlyn when you're thinking about getting someone
to represent you at the cabc what are some potential questions that one could ask of a va
disability attorney so obviously you want to ask some key questions to make sure that this
person is fully qualified and is going to act in your best interest some suggestions
are you know first and foremost is this person admitted to the court as amy said if they're not
admitted they're not going to be recognized and they're not going to be able to represent you
you might also want to inquire about how long that person has been practicing veterans law
and when did they last attend a veterans law training you know the law changes very frequently
in this area of law so you want to make sure that you're working with someone who is up to date
on you know the latest changes to the law has this person ever argued a case before the cavc
how many cases do they even have at the cabc you might also want to ask if this person has ever
played a role in a presidential decision or does this person practice at the federal circuit which
is the court that oversees the cabc right so those are some great example questions of course that's
just a few you can obviously ask whatever you want of who you're trying to engage to represent
you but you know another question that i want to ask for of you caitlyn is do you have to have the
same representative through the whole va process right because we sort of been talking about the
difference between representing at the agency before va and then representing at the court so
can they be two different people they have got to be the same person so you can have different
attorneys over the course of the va process a claimant might have one person who represents
their case as it goes through va at the agency and at the board and then might choose another
to pursue their case before the cavc claimants are not obligated to use that same attorney
um you know for for both areas if you already have a va disability attorney that you're working with
you might want to make sure that you're aware of the scope of the representation
as we mentioned not all va disability attorneys are admitted to practice before the cabc
and not all va disability attorneys might have the experience necessary to represent clients
before the cabc so if that is the case you might want to hire a different representative
so one of the things that i would be thinking if i were someone watching this video is how
much is this going to cost me so you know i'm first going to speak at cck
claimants don't pay our advocates to represent them before the cedc our reasonable fees are
covered by the equal access to justice act so also referred to as eja so each is a federal law
that allows individuals small businesses public interest groups to obtain representation before
the federal government at no cost in the event that the group or individual is successful so
if we if i you know i represent clients at the cedc if i'm able to help my client at the cabc
we can file for our reasonable attorney's fees and we'll get paid directly by the federal government
for our representation and it doesn't cost in my uh in that particular hypothetical
wouldn't cost my client anything but one thing that i always like to note is each age of fees
don't affect potential back pay meaning that they wouldn't detract from any retroactive awards or
of benefits that vao is a veteran from the effective date of their claim if they are
successful at the agency so basically egypt doesn't get taken out of your back pay if
there's back pay that you are eventually given so um if your appeal is unsuccessful
um a representative won't get ejac because that's just how the the statute works so
if they're unable to be successful in your appeal um they won't get egypt fees so um
long story short um that's really all we have for you today
um any closing thoughts caitlyn or amy before i conclude real quick
i would just reiterate how difficult it is to navigate the veterans court process on your own
um because there are the the area of veterans law especially at the court
in the court level is becoming more and more sophisticated
and complicated and i think it would be really hard for someone who doesn't have the experience
at this court with the and with the law to navigate some of the more complex arguments
and i would just echo that you know as we mentioned the va is going to
have an attorney that's representing them that person is going to be well versed in the law so
you know it's very helpful to make sure that you also have a person who is well versed in the law
advocating on your behalf and making sure that your best interests are protected right well
thank you for that thank you caitlin thank you amy so there's more information about the cabc in the
appeals process that can be found on our blog and on our downloadable ebook well thank you very much
for joining us and be sure to subscribe to our channel for more veterans news and information
you