Decision, Appeal, Repeat How Va Can Limit Wait Times, Error, And Red Tape Through Settlements

Abstract

As the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) struggles to find a balance among its budget concerns, efficiency, paternalistic mission, duty to assist veterans, and legal obligation to make timely decisions on claims for benefits, the VA’s latest budget proposal to Congress reflects its hope for change.

Many have written about the broken VA claims process from a thousand-foot view, including the never-ending hamster wheel of claims. Prior to becoming a judge for the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) in 2017, Michael Allen dove deep into these issues and proposed several ways to fix the VA’s procedural system. These ways include creating an independent commission reviewing VA’s claims system, integrating more lawyers in the process, increasing the use of presumptions for service connection, and removing and improving pieces of the appellate process. Each of Judge Allen’s proposals would be a great improvement to the VA system; however, it is unlikely any of these, individually, would fix the never-ending hamster wheel of claims. 

For that reason, this article will focus on a very specific piece of VA authority that can help VA balance its many duties. The answer to the problems facing the VA is settlements, through VA’s current authority or through Congressional action. Before getting into the weeds of how a settlement process could be created in the VA system, this article will briefly explain the VA claims process and its current problems. Next, it will look at Congress’s most recent attempt to fix the claims process through legislation. It will then discuss the history of settlements and why our legal system has preferred settlement over trial. Next, this article will explore the Secretary’s power of equitable relief, how it is used today, its inefficiencies, and how to transform that authority into a settlement mechanism. Finally, this article will discuss what Congress can do to create a settlement system and safeguard veterans from the government. 

Keywords: veterans, Veterans Affairs, Backlog, Efficiency, Settlements, Equitable Relief