VA opposes bill to let veterans hire lawyers

VA opposes bill to let veterans hire lawyers

By Jenny Mandel
jmandel@govexec.com

Bills are moving forward in both chambers of Congress that would reverse a long-standing prohibition on veterans hiring legal counsel to navigate the Veterans Affairs Department benefits system. But the department opposes the proposed change.

One Senate bill and two House bills have been introduced since March, each allowing veterans to hire lawyers early on in the process of pursuing benefits from VA. Current law prevents veterans from using legal counsel until they have exhausted the administrative processes within VA, which can take several years.

Following a Thursday hearing on the Senate bill (S. 2694), sponsor Sen. Larry Craig, R.-Idaho, described the existing laws as paternalistic, citing their origin in Civil War-era distrust of the then-underregulated legal profession.

"These highly trained, highly skilled veterans have the ability -- and should have the right -- to decide for themselves whether to hire a lawyer," he said.

Craig's bill would allow veterans to hire counsel anytime during the benefits process, requiring VA to develop a registration process for lawyers with minimum standards and allowing the department to charge them a registration fee to offset associated costs.

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who hire lawyers to help them with their SSA/SSI benefits? Some of them are veterans! The paternalism was protection of the VA.