Class-action lawsuit against VA approved

[David]

Mercury News


A federal judge in San Francisco has cleared the way for a national class-action lawsuit challenging how Department of Veterans Affairs treats Iraq and Afghanistan war casualties with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The federal system for weighing individual veterans' claims "does not provide an adequate alternative remedy for Plaintiffs' claims for several reasons," U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti wrote in a 42-page order rejecting the government's motion to dismiss three of the lawsuit's four claims.

The lawsuit, which was filed in July by Berkeley-based Disability Rights Advocates on behalf of Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth, claims the VA has violated federal laws and veterans' civil rights by taking too long to provide mental-health care and disability benefits and, in some cases, denying them completely for PTSD.

"VA first mistreated hundreds of thousands of veterans, then took the position that the vets could not bring their grievances to court to be heard," Disability Rights Advocates' managing attorney Melissa Kasnitz said in a statement Thursday. "Today, VA's shameful effort to keep these deserving veterans from their day in court was rejected."

VA spokespeople could not be reached for comment late Thursday, but spokeswoman Jo Schuda in July had said that the agency is committed to "meeting the special needs" of the nation's latest war veterans.

"Through outreach efforts, the VA ensures that returning Global War on Terror service members have access to the widely recognized quality health care they have earned," she said.

Disability Rights Advocates argues that while most disabled veterans cannot receive medical treatment without an approved disability claim, VA now has a backlog of more than 600,000 claim applications, with some dating back to the Vietnam era.

Even after claims have been approved, veterans face serious problems in receiving care, the lawsuit says.

Meanwhile, 15 percent to 50 percent of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have PTSD, the lawsuit says.