Earlier today I attended the Veteran’s Law panel which included Judge Bradley W, Hennings, Professor Aniela K. Szymanski, Jane K. Nichols, and Jenny J. Tang. After attending the Veteran’s Law panel, I now grasped a field of law that I barely even knew existed before, Generally this made me realize how intricate and complex the courts of our law go. The specific field of Veteran’s Law falls under the branch of administrative law that we learned about in class. As Judge Hennings described, Congress set up these courts through a statute that was passed after World War I One would think that lawyers representing the disabled veterans would be a completely pro—veteran, but interestingly enough as one of the panelists explained this is not necessarily the case. Since veteran’s law is administrative law, the lawyers actually represent the taxpayers as well and so while they are very pro-veteran, the lawyers look to dish out the correct benefits for veterans not simply.
The most they can win I believe this adds an interesting revelation because one could argue in some situations it might give the lawyer too much power to now be almost a judge, but at the same time the way the panelists talked about the system this did not seem like the reality at all. Likewise, I found it very interesting that there were no statute of limitations for veteran’s law. Almost everything else we had covered in class had a statute of limitations around a couple of years, so to see a court of law with none was surprising and creates some grey areas. As the panelists described, some veterans would not file for their disabilities 5, 10, 30 and sometimes even 60 years after their service. The problem with this is that it is very hard to connect a disability that you have now with your service years ago, this is one of the main reasons veterans do not receive benefits.
Alternatively, the problem of the Veteran’s law system seemed to be the amount of time it took for veterans to hear if they were awarded benefits or not. For veterans who are suffering from disabilities that often effect their mental well-being, delayed benefits could be the difference between life and death. Many PTSD veterans cannot hold a job, struggle for money, and are unfortunately driven to suicide. The system hopefully can provide benefits to these veterans to get them help, but the lengthiness of the process seemed as a major underlying issue. However as the panelists explained many of these cases are not clear and the time is needed to collect all the facts and come to the correctjudgement. But there are some things in place to counter these issues such as the recent use of social media and the web to allow veteran’s to keep up with their status for their benefits.
Additionally in the horrible circumstances that a veteran does commit suicide when the case is pending, the court will provide therapy services for the family. Ultimately, it seems that the system is improving to get the correct judgement to the veterans as fast as they can, but it is not that easy because the statute from Congress is outdated from World War 1, and while changes can be made by Congress anytime that is certainly not an easy or frequent occurrence. I pledge on my honor as a student that l have neither given nor received aid on this assignment.
