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NVLSP News Articles
Last year, a group of federal scientists was debating whether as many as 2,100 Air Force veterans should qualify for cash benefits for ailments they claimed stemmed from flying aircraft contaminated by Agent Orange. An outside panel of experts had already determined that the scientific evidence showed the vets were likely exposed to the toxic herbicide. The scientists within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs agreed the airmen had a strong case. But they had a more calculated concern: If the VA doled out cash to these veterans, others might want it too, according to an internal document obtained by ProPublica and The Virginian-Pilot. Bart Stichman, co-executive director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program, which has tangled with the VA in court on numerous Agent Orange-related issues, comments in the story. [more]
Released 6/17/16 | Tags: Agent Orange, Veteran's Benefits
Kingdomware Technologies, a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business, has prevailed before the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the Veterans Administration must apply the so-called rule of two to all of its procurements. [more]
Released 6/17/16 | Tags: Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS)
Last year, a group of federal scientists was debating whether as many as 2,100 Air Force veterans should qualify for cash benefits for ailments they claimed stemmed from flying aircraft contaminated by Agent Orange. An outside panel of experts had already determined that the scientific evidence showed the vets were likely exposed to the toxic herbicide. The scientists within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs agreed the airmen had a strong case. But they had a more calculated concern: If the VA doled out cash to these veterans, others might want it too, according to an internal document obtained by ProPublica and The Virginian-Pilot. NVLSP co-executive director, Bart Stichman, provides a comment in the story. [more]
Released 6/15/16 | Tags: Agent Orange, Veteran's Benefits
Federal courts charge fees to access records in an archaic database, but extra revenue is illegally spent on things like flat-screen monitors rather than upgrading the outdated system, a class action lawsuit alleges. [more]
Released 5/17/16 | Tags: Class Actions
Congressman David Rouzer (R-NC) recently introduced H.R. 5015, the Combat-Injured Veterans Tax Fairness Act of 2016, to ensure veterans who suffered service-ending combat-related injuries are not being wrongfully taxed on their severance packages from the Department of Defense. [more]
Released 5/17/16 | Tags: Congressional Legislation
According to the Constitution, the law is by, of, and for the people. Congress makes laws, the president enforces them, the courts interpret them. Yet if you want to read federal court documents—to challenge those laws, or analyze them, or simply see them in the making—you must pay. By the page. Federal courts keep their documents locked within a paywalled database called PACER, an acronym for Public Access to Court Electronic Records. To access documents that are by definition public record, you must pay 10 cents per page. Because a great many people—lawyers, journalists, academics, plaintiffs and defendants—need to view these records, PACER is tremendously profitable. The database isn’t free to run, and some argue that justifies charging people to access it. But a class action lawsuit claims the profits far outweigh those costs. [more]
Released 5/16/16 | Tags: Class Actions
A new non-partisan review by the National Veterans Legal Services Program, Swords to Plowshares, and Harvard Law School’s Veterans Legal Clinic revealed the VA has wrongfully been denying services to post-9/11 veterans. [more]
Released 5/1/16 | Tags: Agent Orange
According to the National Veterans Legal Services Program, more than 13,800 soldiers have been victimized by their own government, used to save money by being improperly taxed. It’s frustrating to even realize this is a problem. [more]
Released 4/30/16 | Tags: Congressional Legislation
Retired service personal in dire need of VA benefits would not be cheered by the allegation that a contractor hired to review the cases of thousands of Vietnam veterans for exposure to Agent Orange may have denied benefits in spite of obvious need, all because the contractor was less than thorough in reviewing cases, or so it has been alleged. [more]
Released 4/27/16 | Tags: Agent Orange
Bart Stichman, joint executive director at the National Veterans Legal Services Program, talks with Federal News Radio’s Jared Serbu about a Veterans Affairs Department policy his group says is unfairly denying health care and compensation to more than 100,000 former service members. [more]
Released 4/27/16 | Tags: Discharge Upgrades