[Music]
hi everyone thank you for joining us today my name is Maura black I'm a managing attorney
here at Chisholm Chisholm in Kilpatrick I'm joined today by Robert Chisholm a partner here at cck and
today we are going to be talking about the guard Act this is a piece of legislation that's pending
before the house Veterans Affairs committee and the Senate Veterans Affairs committee so Robert
can you talk to us about the purpose of the Guard act and how it would help veterans sure
so Maura in order to represent a veteran before the Department of Veterans Affairs or the board
of veterans appeals one first has to become accredited an accreditation by the VA helps
assure competent representation over the last few years a number of companies around the
country have started representing veterans without becoming accredited and charging fees illegally
the purpose of the Guard Act is to reinstate the criminal penalties to help stop these Bad actors
who are charging fees illegally and recently the Senate Veterans Affairs committee held a hearing
on this specific Bill the guard Act and the awesome the office of general counsel testified at
that hearing and let's listen to what they had to say on the guard act VA accredited organizations
individuals are held to specific standards when they assess veterans with their claims your credit
individuals are prevented from charging any fees for Preparation presentation or prosecution of
initial claims however there's a growing Market preying on Veterans claiming to be a Consultants
or coaches and they're charging veterans fees for the same Services veterans can get free from
accredited individuals sometimes these fees are up of upwards of twelve thousand bucks
which means either a veteran gives up months and months of their disability or they end up
being counted by third party debt collectors the guard act reinstates criminal penalties
for anyone who's charging veterans to assist with preparation their claims without being accredited
can can you explain va's position that we should maintain the current law of
not allowing fees to be charged by those assisting with the initial fee appeal
yes um so the current law is that no one may charge a fee for assistance with initial
appeal we'd be happy to provide views on any legislative proposals along those lines but
but that limitation was put in place and has been in place for decades for a logical and
Noble reason which is that veterans benefits should be going into veterans Pockets to the
largest extent possible the system is designed the VA adjudication system is designed to be
weighted very heavily in favor of veterans in favor of granting claims wherever possible
um and in that environment the thought is if a veteran's claim is granted by beyond the VA on
the first pass the veteran should be entitled enjoy the full measure of those earned benefits
without having to divert any of them unnecessarily to an attorney and of course that's balanced by
allowing attorneys in after the first denial I think for the Expedition can you tell me what
will happen if we fail to reimpose criminal penalties for violating va's accreditation
yeah we would expect the market of of actors who are charging illegal fees to grow we're aware
that there are many actors out there right now charging unlawful fees we believe this is a this
has proven to be a potentially lucrative area of law particularly because the the system is
weighted in favor of maximizing grants a number of just percentage-wise a large number of these
claims are going to be granted by VA with or without the assistance of the council but
um it may therefore be relatively easy to make money by signing up claimants and letting the
system operate the way it normally would some more this is a very important piece of legislation the
guard act would help VA stop these companies from charging fees illegally and cck fully supports the
guard Act thanks Robert we have information about the guard act and other VA benefits related items
on our blog also please don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel so that you're able to
receive updates like these in the future thank you all for tuning in and being with us today
[Music]