CBS - aired at 7pm last night
For video from WUSA-9 (their DC affiliate), click here: http://www.wusa9.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=79643&catid=187
Class Action Lawsuit Seeks Benefits For PTSD Soldiers
Posted By: Phyllis Armstrong Date last updated: 12/18/2008 5:41:50 AM
Attorneys have filed a class action lawsuit to get Army benefits for soldiers with PTSD.
WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- Many of America's soldiers come home from war with medals. Thousands of men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan also return with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
"I came home from Iraq and had reoccurring nightmares, insomnia, irritability, extreme tension, stress and paranoia," said Juan Perez, a former U.S. Army cavalry scout.
Perez is now part of a class action lawsuit that takes aim at the Army. Attorneys for the National Veterans Legal Services Program say the Army ignores regulations that would provide retirement pay and family health benefits for Perez and other soldiers with PTSD.
"I experienced firsthand the horrors of war. I saw my friends suffer injuries, and several of my friends and fellow soldiers died," said Perez.
His lawyers say mandates from the Veterans Administration and Congress require the Army to give discharged PTSD soldiers a 50% disability rating. Perez, a father of five, received a zero rating and struggles to pay his family's bills.
"I was a good soldier...My expectation was that the military would be there for me and my country would be there for me. Instead, the way I was treated felt more like a to the face," said Perez.
The class action lawsuit does not seek punitive damages. Attorney Jim Kelley says NVLSP simply wants to get relief for soldiers who deserve better treatment.
"I don't think we can do enough for the veterans who put themselves in harm's way to fight the war on terrorism," said Kelley.
He says soldiers with PTSD, who are no longer able to serve, should qualify for family health care and retirement pay. Perez works as a shipping clerk in Colorado and has trouble paying health care premiums for his family.
"Kids get sick all the time. If I had gotten my 50% disability rating, it wouldn't be a big issue. I wouldn't have to worry about the big premiums," said Perez.
The father of five served in Iraq twice. He says an explosion left him with impaired vision as well as PTSD. The NVLSP attorneys say there are hundreds, if not thousands of people with PTSD who are not getting the benefits they deserve from the Army.
"It's hard for me because I love the Army...The other soldiers need to be taken care of also. It's not just myself. I can feel what they're going through because I'm going through it myself," said Perez.
A spokesman says the Army's lawyers have not yet seen the class action complaint. A statement provided say medical experts and personnel staffs carefully evaluate each claim to ensure soldiers and their families get well-deserved benefits.
Written by Phyllis Armstrong
9NEWS NOW
CNN - press conference streamed live on CNN.com yesterday, story below, along with transcript of on-air coverage
Stressed soldiers sue for disability benefits
Story Highlights
Soldiers: Army denied them disability rating, so they were denied benefits
Lawsuit filed by veterans advocacy group on behalf of vets with PTSD
In October, Army ordered all future PTSD sufferers to be eligible for benefits
Soldiers want eligibility to go back six years
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Army intentionally denied benefits to soldiers suffering from a widespread stress disorder after they returned from service in Iraq and Afghanistan, a veterans advocacy group charges in a suit filed Wednesday.
The lawsuit, filed by the National Veterans Legal Services Program, accuses the Army of illegally cutting off benefits to thousands of veterans and their families by refusing to assign a proper disability rating to those veterans after they had been discharged with a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
As a result, the veterans have been denied benefits, including, among other things, lifetime monthly disability payments and free medical care for themselves and their families.
"I experience firsthand the horrors of war" said Juan Perez, an Iraq veteran and one of five plaintiffs in the lawsuit. "My expectation was that the military would be there for me, and my country would be there for me. Instead, the way I was treated felt more like a slap to the face."
All disabled veterans are assigned a disability rating from zero to 100 percent. According to the Legal Services Program, a rating of at least 30 percent is required to qualify for benefits such as monthly disability payments and free health care.
Soldiers receiving less than a 30 percent rating are entitled only to a one-time lump sum severance payment after being discharged.
On October 14, the Defense Department ordered the Army to assign at least a 50 percent rating to all soldiers discharged with PTSD in the future.
The lawsuit seeks to provide full benefits to all veterans discharged with PTSD in the past six years.
A Rand Corp. study released in April indicated that nearly 20 percent of all military service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have reported symptoms of PTSD or major depression.
CNN NEWSROOM TRANSCRIPT
Multiple Failures of the SEC; Adam Walsh Case Closed; New Lawsuit for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Aired December 17, 2008 - 09:00 ET
Meanwhile, short-changing our veterans. A new lawsuit in Washington from The National Veterans Legal Services Program says some soldiers who come back after fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq with Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder are not getting the benefits they deserve. CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, is live in Washington now with the story.
Barbara, we hear an awful lot about PTSD, certainly, with these two conflicts. But we haven't heard a lot about benefits that the servicemen and women are supposed to be getting.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, we haven't, Heidi. And at this hour, here, there is a press conference under way by a Veterans Legal Services Group addressing that very point. They are making the case that they believe in this class action lawsuit, you see some of the people speaking now about this, that veterans are inappropriately getting minimal disability ratings for post-traumatic stress disorder, and because of those minimal disability ratings, veterans are not getting their full benefits.
The magic number? 50 percent. With a 50 percent disability rating for PTSD, as it's called, veterans would get a series of much better benefits for life. Some of the benefits they would get with that 50 percent disability rating, they would get monthly disability benefits for life. They would get free health care for themselves and their spouse. Free health care for dependent children.
The lawsuit claiming that the Army, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the people involved in giving the returning troops that key disability rating are deliberately giving them less than a 50 percent rating so the government can avoid paying them these extra benefits, which, of course, would amount to millions of dollars for troops over their lifetime.
But as you say, Heidi, what it really gets to is this continuing issue of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for the troops returning from these wars. Every expert will tell you that it is a very serious, very deep, very broad problem, and nobody really at this point has any idea, specifically, how many troops are suffering these days and how many will in the future.
Heidi?
COLLINS: Yes, certainly something that the army is working on. General Rick Shinseki, secretary of the VA, that was announced, right, this will be something that I imagine he will be looking into?
STARR: I think you can bet that Rick Shinseki, along with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, will make the issue of benefits for the returning troops from the war one of their top priorities.
General Shinseki wounded several times as a young soldier serving in Vietnam.
COLLINS: Yes, what a story.
STARR: Disabled partially himself with some of those injuries over his continuing career in the army. He's somebody who really gets it. And everyone believes will make this a top priority.
Heidi?
COLLINS: Very good. CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, for us this morning. Thanks, Barbara.
Associated Press - picked up story from Billings Gazette (the hometown paper of one of our plaintiffs)
http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2008/12/18/state/hjjbihibjjifhh.txt
Veterans file suit against government
By The Associated Press - 12/18/2008
BILLINGS — A 22-year-old Billings man is one of five Army veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who filed a class-action lawsuit against the U.S. government on Wednesday.
Nicholas Wells and the four other veterans say they were found to be unfit for service because they were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, but then were denied disability benefits and free health care to which they were entitled under federal law.
The suit was filed in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., by the National Veterans Legal Services Program. The class-action lawsuit was also filed on behalf of potentially thousands of other veterans in the same situation.
Wells' mother, Dawna Lynn Wells, a physician assistant at St. Vincent Healthcare, said her son is working on a North Dakota oil rig and did not want to comment on the suit. She referred all questions about the suit to the lawyers who filed it.
Barton Stichman, one of the attorneys, is also a joint director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program. He said Wells and the other four plaintiffs are all Westerners who underwent basic training at Fort Carson, Colo.
Stichman said they joined in the suit because when the legal services program established its Lawyers Serving Warriors project early this year and offered free legal services to veterans, those five were among the first to request assistance.
A preliminary statement that opens the complaint reads: "This case arises from the failure of the United States Department of Army to honor its clear and explicit duty — embodied by statute and regulation — that it not abandon its fallen or wounded soldiers or leave them behind." The complaint says the plaintiffs were all diagnosed with PTSD after their experiences in combat. The Army was required to assign each veteran a disability rating of at least 50 percent based on the PTSD diagnosis, which would have made the soldiers eligible for benefits and assistance, including health care for the veterans and their families, the suit says.
"In a deliberate disregard for its legal obligation, the Army instead rated these soldiers below 50 percent (and in most cases below 30 percent) in a transparent attempt to purge its ranks and eradicate its responsibility to care for its wounded soldiers," the complaint continues.
The lawsuit notes that the Defense Department on Oct. 14 directed the Army to begin assessing a minimum PTSD rating of 50 percent for all soldiers discharged with that ailment, but it says that the directive does nothing for the thousands of soldiers who were previously rated improperly.
Army regulations long required the 50 percent rating, and the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act specifically mandated such a rating, according to the lawsuit.
PTSD is a mental health disorder that used to be known as "shell shock" or "combat fatigue." It often makes it difficult for sufferers to adjust to work or maintain a job or to interact with others, and it can lead to feelings of estrangement and detachment. It can also bring on nightmares and sleep deprivation, memory loss and family or marital discord.
All disabled veterans are supposed to be assigned a disability rating from 0 to 100 percent, in increments of 10 percent. A retired service member rated at 30 percent or higher is deemed "medically retired" and is entitled to disability retirement pay for the rest of his or her life, according to the complaint. Such retirees also receive commissary and exchange privileges and free medical care for life, including spousal and eligible dependent coverage.
A veteran rated below 30 percent is deemed "medically separated" and receives a one-time lump sum disability payment and none of the other benefits available to a medically retired veteran.
Three of the veterans named in the suit, including Wells, received disability ratings of 10 percent. The other two had zero ratings.
The military careers of the five plaintiffs are described in some detail in the complaint. Spc. Wells joined the Army on Nov. 9, 2004, and was deployed to Iraq with the 3rd Brigade Combat team in the 4th Infantry Division, where he was a scout and a lead Humvee gunner. His squadron routinely came under small-arms fire as well as more than 20 attacks involving improvised explosive devices, according to the complaint.
Wells' tour in Iraq last about 12 months, and he began experiencing signs of PTSD during a leave at Fort Carson in March 2006. Although doctors told him he was suffering "normal" anxiety attacks, when he ultimately returned from Iraq in November 2006, "he was still subject to severe anxiety attacks and other symptoms of PTSD," the suit says.
He received intermittent treatment for two years, but it "was designed only to ready Spc. Wells for redeployment to Iraq in late 2007," the complaint says. His redeployment orders were finally canceled in December 2007 and he was found unfit for continued service last May. It was then he was rated 10 percent disabled, rendering him "medically separated" from the Army and deprived of numerous benefits.
The complaint says the exact number of affected veterans is unknown, but that "thousands of individuals were evaluated and permanently separated from service by the Army" because of PTSD over the past six years but were rated below 50 percent disabled.
The suit asks the Court of Claims to order the Army to stop its practice of violating its own rules when rating soldiers with PTSD and to award the plaintiffs benefits to which they are entitled, as well as court costs and attorney fees.
Contact Ed Kemmick at ekemmick@billingsgazette.com or 657-1293.
Legal Times - the Incisive Media (formerly ALM) publication in DC posted the story yesterday afternoon, and it's now among the headlines featured on the paper's website and Law.com
December 17, 2008
Veterans Sue Federal Government Over Disability Benefits
A group of military veterans filed a class-action against the federal government today, alleging that they were illegally denied disability benefits despite being diagnosed with severe cases of post-traumatic stress disorder that should have qualified them for free care.
The five soldiers, all veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, were discharged by the Army after it determined that their damaged mental health left them unfit to serve, according to a complaint filed with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Once released, they were assigned disability ratings well below the 30 percent figure needed to qualify for lifetime health care benefits.
The complaint alleges that starting in 2002, the Army “systematically” ignored rules requiring that all servicemen diagnosed with PTSD receive an automatic 50 percent rating. Just this past October, the Defense Department ordered the Army to stop deflating PTSD victims' disability ratings.
So far, there has not been any discussion at the Defense Department about how to compensate the soldiers who were denied benefits before the order, said the veterans' lawyers. The suit asks the Army to award them disability benefits, as well as financial compensation for the benefits they have missed.
Lawyers for the veterans are hoping that the suit’s discovery process will reveal how many other servicemen with PTSD were denied disability benefits.
“We don’t know the exact numbers of the people who were effected, but we think there were thousands,” says Bart Stichman, co-director of National Veterans Legal Services Program, which is representing the soldiers.
Along with the NVLSP, the soldiers are being represented by Brad Fagg, James Kelly, Richard Black and Charles Groppe of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. The suit is the first from the NVLSP’s Lawyers Serving Warriors project, a program meant to provide veterans pro bono counsel from major firms.
This isn’t the first time the Army has come under fire for its handling of PTSD victims. In California last year, a group of former soldiers filed suit against the Veterans Administration in federal court demanding that the agency completely restructure the way it processes PTSD claims and clean up a bureaucratic mess that left many former soldiers without care for months.
Army spokesman Paul Boyce did not address the suit directly, but says the Army would continue doing its best to aid veterans.
“We have assisted more than 650,000 soldiers with their disability both their physical and mental health concerns,” Boyce says. “That’s more people than the city of Atlanta. We will continue to do so.”
Posted by Jordan Weissmann on December 17, 2008 at 03:21 PM
AmLaw Litigation Daily - carried the story in this morning's roundup
PRO BONO
Morgan Lewis Files Class Action for Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
We've heard of class actions filed against the Department of Veterans Affairs, alleging it failed to care adequately for soldiers who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. Morrison & Foerster has been involved in one such action. But yesterday, lawyers at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius and the National Veterans Legal Services Program took a different path. On behalf of five veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who suffer from PTSD, they filed a suit in Federal Claims court targeting the U.S. Army.
The suit, which seeks class action status, claims that the Army has ignored federal law and its own regulations in denying benefits to soldiers who were discharged as a result of suffering from PTSD. According to the suit, the Army is required to assign veterans who suffer from PTSD a disability rating of at least 50 percent, which would make them eligible for full benefits. The Army, the suit alleges, has instead given those soldiers a rating below 50 percent. "Not only has the Army expelled these soldiers from service, but it has reneged on its statutory obligation to provide these veterans the aid, assistance, and benefits they are due under existing federal law and longstanding federal regulation," the suit alleges.
The Morgan Lewis attorneys working on the mater are Brad Fagg, David Kerr, James Kelley II, Richard Black, and Charles Groppe. Barton Stichman and Amy Fletcher appear on the complaint for the National Veterans Legal Services Program.
Blogger coverage - three veterans and disability blogs picked it up as well
http://ptsdcombat.blogspot.com/2008/12/as-second-legal-attempt-fails-to-force.html
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfdec08/nf121808-3.htm
http://www.specialneedsbusiness.com/articles/soldiers-sue-us-army/
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Class Action Lawsuit Seeks Benefits For PTSD Soldiers
