As mentioned previously, the class action lawsuit filed by the two non-profit groups (the plaintiffs) Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United For Truth, Inc. is not monetarily based. Instead, the lawsuit is for declaratory and injunctive relief under the US Constitution and Rehabilitation Act (1973).[1] The Veteran's Judicial Review Act (i.e., how disability claims are handled and decided) and the related administrative polices and procedures are also objected to in the class action lawsuit.[2]
(http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ and http://www.vuft.org/)
The intention of the suit is as equally powerful as its magnitude for creating change. Understanding the legal terminology used by the law firm of Morrison & Foerster, LLC and the plaintiffs clarifies the outcomes desired as well as the reasons for the class action lawsuit.
A claim for declaratory judgment is used in civil cases for the purpose of stating publicly the rights, duties or obligations of an agency.[3] For purposes of this lawsuit, a declaratory judgment is sought to protect and uphold the responsibilities (rights, duties and obligations to veterans) by the Department of Veteran's Affairs for disability claims for veterans. A declaratory judgment is binding, meaning that the Department of Veteran's Affairs is then required to fulfill such rights, duties or obligations to veterans.
The request for a declaratory judgment goes to the time delay for approval for claims submitted by veterans for PTSD as well as the massive amount of claims either pending approval or rejected. The delay in disability claim approval results in the loss of medical treatment and disability benefits veterans are entitled to. In effect, the declaratory aspect is forcing the hand of the Department of Veteran's Affairs to "declare" the rights afforded to veterans for disability status and to resolve the issues of timely claim determinations, accurate claim determinations, and to repair the current system in place to rectify the rights, duties and obligations of the agency to the veterans it serves.
According to the British Broadcasting Agency (BBC), the length of time for PTSD claim paperwork to be reviewed is at least six months; if denied and an appeal is needed, it could be up to two years without treatment or benefits for lost work time. According to the documentation and statistics stated in the civil suit filed by Morrison & Foerster, LLC, this could easily average out further to over eight and a half years, considering the way in which the Bureau of Veteran's Affairs is handling the amount of claims received, the amount of claims denied, and the amount of claims circling back through the system for "further investigation." Sometimes the delay runs up to ten to twelve years.
As for injunctive relief, this is a request for an order of the court to tell a party to do or not do a certain action rather than offering monetary damages.[4] An injunction is a different legal course of action wherein monetary damages would not resolve the situation at hand. Injunctive relief is where the term equitable remedy comes into play. Equitable remedy refers to a form of compensation more valuable than money (in this case treatment, access to health care, due process of disability claims and rights afforded to veterans). In this suit, equitable remedy is what is sought; receiving equitable remedy (or corrective action to drastically improve the current processes in place) is the purpose of filing this injunctive relief claim.
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