Student attorneys in the Veterans Advocacy Law Clinic at West Virginia University recently helped a former Army Ranger pursue his dream of becoming a medical doctor.
WVU College of Law students Brad DeFlumeri and Alex Jonese represented Jeremy Marx, who served six deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan as a medic in the 75th Ranger Regiment.
MORGANTOWN – Law students from the West Virginia University College of Law recently helped two disabled Air Force veterans successfully win their cases in the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
The students were part of the Veteran’s Advocacy Clinic (VAC) at West Virginia University, one of nine clinics offered every year at the school to third-year law students. Students apply to the clinics during the spring of their second year in law school.
On Monday, January 16, 2017, student clinicians serving in the Veterans Advocacy Clinic (VAC) at the West Virginia University College of Law had the pleasure of travelling to Madison, WV, a small community located approximately 35 miles southwest of Charleston, to meet and exchange ideas with veterans of the Daniel Boone Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 5578, Madison, West Virginia.
The meeting provided the opportunity for the student clinicians to see first-hand some of the issues that West Virginia veterans have with navigating the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) benefits bureaucracy, a system through which the VAC often guides local veterans by representing them on benefits claims and appeals.
Students in the WVU Veterans Advocacy Clinic (VAC) have successfully represented two American veterans in two different appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC). The VAC represents both of these veterans as a result of its partnership with the Washington, DC-based Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program.
In the Fall 2016 Semester, two student teams represented United States Air Force Veteran Thomas R. Wooten in an expedited appeal before the CAVC. The student attorneys argued on appeal that the Board of Veterans Appeals had erred in not finding that Mr. Wooten was entitled to an earlier effective date for the payment of special monthly compensation (SMC) due to his extensive service-connected disabilities. The CAVC agreed and, on September 30, 2016, the Court granted the parties’ joint request to vacate and set aside the Board’s decision denying Mr. Wooten’s claim. The VAC student teams continue to provide pro bono legal assistance to Mr. Wooten on his SMC claims before the agency on remand.
MORGANTOWN (West Virginia Record) – A recent $10,000 grant award to the West Virginia University College of Law’s Veterans Advocacy Clinic will aid in its mission to serve the approximately 170,000 veterans in the state, the clinic's director said during a recent interview.
The Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program grant was awarded as part of a competitive grant application and review process," said Jennifer Oliva, the clinic's inaugural director, during an email interview with The West Virginia Record. "Each year the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program offers grants to law school veterans’ clinics to launch their operations or to advance their work on behalf of veterans and their loved ones or their survivors."
