Program areas at Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program
The cavc practice operates the federal Pro Bono Program for Veterans on behalf of the u.s. court of appeals for Veterans' claims (court). We conduct outreach to eligible Veterans with disability compensation claims denied by the board of Veterans' appeals that have been appealed or are ripe for appeal to the court, diligently screen their cases to identify those with issues of legal merit, and carefully place them with our corps of volunteer attorneys who provide free representation before the court. Concurrently, we recruit volunteer attorneys and provide them with specialized training in Veterans law, mentors, case materials and other focused resources to enable and enhance their success. This year the cavc practice received 649 requests for assistance, trained 505 volunteer attorneys, screen 519 cases for legal merit, placed 400 with volunteer attorneys, and assisted 739 self-represented appellants through the limited legal assistance and information helpline. The cavc practice also manages the court's rule 33 pilot Program which is a pilot Program designed to provide self-represented appellants a second opportunity to obtain a Pro Bono counsel and receive free limited representation from volunteer attorneys at a pre-briefing conference. This year, the cavc practice placed 89 self-represented appellants who opted into the rule 33 pilot Program with volunteer attorneys.
In addition to screening cases for legal merit and mentoring volunteer attorneys, the cavc and du legal teams also provided direct representation in a limited number of cases. This year the cvac attorneys provided direct representation before the u.s. court of appeals for Veterans claims to 20 clients. The du attorneys provided direct representaiton before the discharge review boards to 22 clients.
The discharge upgrade Program provides free legal representation nationwide to Veterans with other than honorable (oth) discharges due to conduct related to post traumatic stress disorder (ptsd), military sexual trauma (mst), traumatic brain injury (tbi), don't ask, don't tell, and anti-lgbtqia+ policies. We conduct outreach to eligible Veterans with oths, diligently screen their cases to identify those with issues of merit, and carefully place them with our corps of volunteer attorneys who provide free representation before the department of defense boards. Concurrently, we recruit volunteer attorneys and provide them with specialized training in discharge upgrades, mentors, case materials and other focused resources to enable and enhance their success. This year the du Program received 2691 requests for assistance, trained 832 attorneys, screened 293 cases for merit, and placed 61 cases with volunteer attorneys.