Last week I had the honor of making a presentation at the semi-annual meeting of the National Organization of Veterans Advocates (NOVA) in San Antonio, Texas. Not unexpectedly, the topic of my talk was medical malpractice claims relating to care received from the VA. There were a lot of good questions from the audience and I really enjoyed the interaction. Overall, I think it went well.
NOVA is a great organization, whose members help veterans with disability claims. We are not disability lawyers, but doing what we do the majority of our veteran clients have some sort of VA disability rating. I have known for years that the VA disability process was difficult and confusing, but until I attended my first NOVA meeting last Fall, I had no idea just how onerous the whole process truly is. The medical malpractice cases we handle are not easy, but the convoluted regulations and dense bureaucracy of the disability process boggles my mind. The persistence and devotion of NOVA members is truly awesome and it is not like they make a lot of money doing it. These men and woman – not all of whom are lawyers – inspire me to do more to help veterans. The standard they set is a high one, but our veterans deserve all the help we can give them.