‘Veterans court’ faces a backlog that continues to grow

[alp227]

Source: The Washington Post

In a cramped office building in Washington, sandwiched between a deli and a day care, a little-known appeals court for veterans is struggling to work its way through hundreds of backlogged cases.

The court, created two decades ago to weigh disability claims rejected by the Department of Veterans Affairs, is by many measures the nation’s busiest federal appellate court — and a symbol of the accumulating toll of prolonged war, both on soldiers and the bureaucracies created to serve them.

The caseload at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims has doubled in recent years, with the court deciding more than 600 cases per judge each year — far more than other federal appellate courts. Judges are working nights and weekends but say they still have difficulty keeping pace.

Veterans whose claims had already spent years in the VA system often wait several more years for the court to rule on whether they will receive disability payments and free health care. Some have abandoned their appeals. Others, including soldiers from as far back as World War II, have died before a decision was issued.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/veterans_court_faces_backlog_that_continues_to_grow/2011/04/15/AFFaavRE_singlePage.html

[TacticalPeek]

1. “It’s not like we’re trying to put someone on the Supreme Court,” he said.

“I’m hugely disappointed,’’ said Glenn R. Bergmann, president of the bar association that represents veterans before the court. He is one of a number of advocates who have written the White House about the problem, with no response. “It’s not like we’re trying to put someone on the Supreme Court,” he said.

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Dear Administration,

Would you do your fucking job, pretty-please?

WTF

[jwirr]

2. Seems to me the this would be a good opportunity for Obama to

do something for the Veterans. Appoint more judges to this branch of the Courts.