VA is facing its first-ever class-action lawsuit allowed by the court. The lawsuit in question is for veterans that are looking for relief for the long wait times that they’ve had to endure for disability benefits appeals.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC), a federal court, ruled that a case against the long wait times could keep going, and legal experts are saying that this case could open opportunities for cases much like this one to come against the VA. In August of last year, there was a ruling by the CAVC that stated that class-action suits that were seen as appropriate cases would be able to go against the VA, but none have come to this point until Godsey V. Wilkie.
Godsey V. Wilkie
Filed in 2017, the Godsey case consists of four veterans who were seeking relief for the long waits they endured when it came to their VA disability claims appeals. The four veterans involved in this case are Jeffery Henke, James Godsey Jr., Pamela Whitfield, and Thomas Marshall.
This case aims to try to shorten the time that a veteran has to wait for the appeals processes between the Board of Veterans Appeals and the regional offices. For years, the Regional Offices have been able to artificially lower the number of appeals they had in the backlog by putting some appeal cases in the certification process before they went before the Board of Veteran Appeals.
The court has now allowed the case to be extended to include a class of veterans that have all been waiting for the process to start on their disability appeals claim for at least 18 months. The court has decided that at least 18 months delay by the VA to start the appeals process is “per se unreasonable” and that these delays are intolerable because they are made up of nothing but waiting in line and that the VA should have taken action by now.
They are no longer content with waiting for the VA to deal with the unreasonable wait times on their own. The VA Secretary has been given several years to initiate and act on the pre-certification review of members’ cases and has not done so. Because of this, it’s time that judicial intervention happens to help veterans get the justice they deserve.
During 2017, the VA took about 773 days to certify a Substantive Appeal to the Board and another 321 days to transfer the record after the certification process was completed.
The plaintiffs were pleased with the ruling of the court and took it as a win for all of the veterans that have been stuck waiting for their benefits because of the delays created by the VA.
This class action lawsuit is the first one ever to be accepted in a 30-year history, so it’s a landmark moment. The lawsuit will hopefully help veterans and veteran family members to gain access to their deserved justice.
The Aftermath
Godsey V. Wilkie has been in the making for a long time, and now that it’s here it’s opening doors for veterans to receive consistent, efficient, and fair adjudications just as what was intended by Congress.
For years, legal advocates have been pushing the court to overturn a ban on class-action lawsuits against the VA department. The officials have been arguing that the ban on class-action lawsuits have been, effectively, allowing officials in the VA to push off systematic corrections when it came down to only one individual fighting against them.
This is because, in private lawsuits, the individual must prove that they have suffered a hardship or specific injury before they can win a judgment. However, in class-action lawsuits, the plaintiffs only need to show harmful or illegal activity against a bigger group, which brings different standards for appeasement.
The court hasn’t allowed ever allowed class-action lawsuits that involve direct payouts to veterans. However, the move with Godsey V. Wilkie will force the VA to address regulations and rules to respond to a collection of veteran complaints at once, instead of just reacting to a single problem separately.
The ruling of Godsey V. Wilkie requires the VA to begin a precertification review of all the cases for all of the class-action members within 120 days from their initial filing. It also requires the VA department to give status updates on the work they have done for the cases to the court before the end of summer 2019.
Class-Action Lawsuits
A class-action lawsuit is a civil case that is brought forth by one or more people on behalf of a larger group of people who have a similar claim or have suffered from similar harm. Class action lawsuits can be brought in either federal or state courts. Class actions are mostly used when too many people have been affected by the subject of the claim for each of them file a separate lawsuit.
Plenty of lawyers don’t get involved with class-action suits because this form of litigation is highly specialized, and these lawsuits also require a large amount of financing and human resources. With this in mind, it’s clear to see why solo attorneys would never get involved in a class-action lawsuit.
With the new ruling that came from the Godsey V. Wilkie VA class action lawsuit, thousands of veterans will now be able to have justice without each veteran being required to contest the same facts multiple times.
This allows more and more veterans to finally get their VA benefits to appeal to be taken care of without having to wait more than 18 months.
Since the ruling of this case is so new, we have to keep in mind that things are bound to change over the next few months. We might even see the VA trying to argue out as many class action members’ claims as possible by, perhaps, granting the benefits sought or by performing some other mental acrobatics. Whatever happens, hopefully, it’ll lead to veterans getting the benefits they deserve without the long wait times they’ve previously have had to endure.