Introductions & Guest Lineup

J Basser 0:05

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of Jay Bastard's Exposed Vet Productions. It's a beautiful Thursday, 18th day of September. The days are getting shorter and the time's going by faster. Today we've got a treat for you. We've got our co-host, Mr. Ray Cobb. We got my better hat. She's hiding behind the screen. She's a producer. We got three guests tonight. First one that doesn't need an introduction, it's Mr. Alex Graham. He's a show regular. Alex is an accredit appeals agent, not attorney practitioner. And uh he is uh one of the special monthly compensation gurus that I've met over the years. Then we've got uh Miss Mrs. Tamar Dyson. Yes, that's right. Our main guest tonight is Mrs. Ginny Lones. Ginny is an attorney. She's based out of the DC area. Uh she's retired military. And uh just talking to her the other day, and uh it's kind of a kind of a good story what she did. Uh Ginny, welcome to the show. Thank you. Start us off and tell us a bit about yourself, uh, you know, and uh what you do and things like that. Just kind of give us a heads up so we'll you know we're comfortable with to know what uh what you know what you do for uh for a living.

Jennifer Lohnes 1:30

Sure, sure. Well, I mean, I can a little bit about my service. I I um I joined when or enlisted when I was 17 years old. My parents had to sign the waiver. Um to let me in. I was I got into transportation because at the time I wanted the shortest AIT with the largest bonus, and that was in what 2000, 2000, I think. Anyway, um I got a $6,000 bonus and I ended up being a truck driver. So um I did that for a couple of years until they realized I was not a great driver, and I eventually um transitioned on to be a paralegal and then eventually an attorney in the JAG court. So I was in Kosovo in 2004 and Iraq in 2009. Can you guys hear me okay?

unknown 2:18

All right.

Jennifer Lohnes 2:19

Um I met my husband at the basic course, the JAG school in Charlottesville. Um, he's active duty, he's JAG. Um we have four kids, and we're living right now, currently

Ginny’s Service Journey to VA Law

Jennifer Lohnes 2:30

near DC. Five kids. Got one in college, so he's pretty self-sufficient. So I I don't count him since he's not at home anymore.

J Basser 2:41

You have one in college.

Jennifer Lohnes 2:43

One in college.

J Basser 2:44

Uh I hope he got some scholarships because college is not cheap.

unknown 2:48

Yes.

Jennifer Lohnes 2:49

He's R O T C, so he's getting there.

J Basser 2:52

Oh, okay. That's good. Um that's really good. Uh being familiar with that area. Um I like the area. Um, it's a little bit crazy. Uh I wish they all knew how to drive a little better because I had to say a lot of them can't drive to save their life over there. I call that Captain Crunchville. I'm serious. There's wrecks everywhere.

Jennifer Lohnes 3:13

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree.

J Basser 3:16

But um now, whatever made you decide to take up VA law.

Jennifer Lohnes 3:25

Well, um mostly, you know, I I was I I retired retired as I retired um from the military and um the kids that we have at home, my oldest is special needs, um and this allows me to work around his schedule, um, you know, work around the stuff that I have going on, um, and it allows me to get back.

J Basser 3:52

Okay. Okay. Well, that's a good answer. I mean, you know, it's always uh uh it's always a good thing when you can give back. And uh, you know, you can take care of veterans and you know, things like that, which is really good. I mean, now uh in your practice, I guess uh you start with the appeals processes and do you go up to the BVA level or do you keep going until you go to the CABC

Why VA Appeals Work Fits Family Life

J Basser 4:15

or how high do you go? I mean, that's a that's a good question we have to ask.

Jennifer Lohnes 4:18

Yeah, so I've I have a few cases at the Court of Appeals or at the CABC right now, um, but I I usually I like to stay at the the regional office PVA. I'm more comfortable there.

J Basser 4:30

Well, my personal question is he's pretty good. It's always better.

Speakers 4:37

Go ahead, Alex. I just said there's more money down below than there is at the court.

J Basser 4:44

That's true, too. That is true too. But uh, you know, of course, money's not everything, Alex, you know. I mean, uh, you know, I run this show and uh uh I haven't seen a dime.

Speakers 4:57

So well, I'm not thinking of it in terms of just making money, but Jenny, I could tell by looking at the room behind her that uh she doesn't get to sit there for free. I hit the jack button, I have a rich wife, but everybody got her mirror outs.

J Basser 5:18

There's two JDs in the house, okay?

Speakers 5:21

Yeah, well, I just look at the standpoint as I buy all my independent medical opinions for my guys, and if I win 30,000, 40,000, I don't have the heart to say, hey, you owe me 2,000 back. So I give those away. They need it more than I do. We don't know when you gotta write. We donate a ton of money to uh tunnel the towers and Fisher House, too. So Fisher House, they let my wife stay there for almost a month and a half when they thought I was gonna die back in 2009. And they generally say only a week, maybe two in a stretch. But I just didn't die. Took me a long time not to die.

J Basser 6:08

I had to say that's one of the best things that the VA has got in their facilities, and their grounds in the fisherhouse. It is. Um we've got a beautiful one here. I saw it today, as a matter of fact, and uh, you know, and what they do for people and things like that, there's kitchens you can cook and do whatever you want to do in there, and they're beautiful buildings.

Speakers 6:25

And those refrigerators are full of food all the time. You don't have to run down

Practice Scope: RO, BVA, and CAVC

Speakers 6:30

the fish.

J Basser 6:32

Well, you can't do that here, you get run over. It's called Frauder Lane. So but uh now you teach classes on special monthly compensation. Is this how you met some of these folks? Is this some of your students that you've over over over the past that uh you taught them? And because I know you're the guru when it comes to SMC. You know, you still started with Mr. Potato Head many, many moons ago.

unknown 7:03

Mr.

Speakers 7:04

Potato Head was born in 2013 for SMC purposes. Uh but uh there's a gal named Betty Jones, she's an agent up in Chicago, and she kept pestering me day in and day out after uh uh the pandemic was over uh and uh saying I've got a whole bunch of people who want to learn this. And finally I said, okay, if you can assemble ten at one time, I'll do it. Well, she had 10 and another 10 lined up behind that, and it turned out it was another 10 behind that. But I just didn't feel like drowning the uh the market with too many people that know how to do it because then it it cheapens it. I I I know that CCK is really good at it, but they're nobody's perfect at this. And I'm not saying that I am, but things change all the time. And a good example of that is Barry versus McDonough, uh has opened up quite an avenue for us to go at it and get to N and a half plus K using SMCP, which creates its own opportunity to reach R1 for a lot of people, much like the people who get to SMCT via uh 1L for aid and attendance. So it's it's constantly changing. I taught it and now I almost have to go back and reteach it with all the new stuff. We lost John,

Fisher House, Giving Back, and Values

Speakers 8:40

it looks like.

J Basser 8:44

I mean, it's a never-inning battle. You know, I mean, because there's always they're always making changes. Um get to watch the federal register like a hop.

Jennifer Lohnes 8:52

I met Alex. I reached out to Alex because I had a tricky case where I didn't think I was going to get the guy past 60 percent, and he had a number of issues, but I just I couldn't figure out how to get it service connected. Anyway, um I had posted on a forum that we're both involved in about a foot drop, and he reached out to me and he goes, Well, foot drop, are you looking at lost views? I was like, What's lost what's lost views? Anyway, so you know, we ended up um I mean he he's at SMCL right now. I'm not sure if we're gonna if we're going to go farther with him, but that's that's how I met Alex and he just completely changed the way I look at cases now.

J Basser 9:34

Thank you. I mean Alex has helped a lot of us immensely over the years. I've been friends with Alex for oh goodness, I'm gonna say going on 15, 16 years. Yeah. You know, and uh so and he's always been he's been a part of the show for a long, long time. Remember back in the day when he first started coming on the show, it was uh kind of inner infancy, and he taught us more than we'll ever, you know. I mean, it'd be hard to pay back everything this man's ever taught me.

Jennifer Lohnes 10:01

Yeah, yeah, right, right. I mean, he's he's he's he's completely changed the way I practice and how I approach cases now.

Speakers 10:09

One thing that I offer everybody that I taught with my SMC class is John, it's very important is to have ever had a question about it. There's the device right there. Feel free to call me if you don't understand what you're doing, because I they paid good money to learn how to do it. And if they're still confused, then I'm I'm a failure. I didn't I didn't succeed in teaching them.

Jennifer Lohnes 10:38

But even before, I will say, and I I don't know if if Alex, I mean, you might not want to, but but Alex has been even before I took the class, he was available. Like anytime I had questions, he he he helped me before. I didn't understand it before I took his class, but he was guiding me before I took his class. So I'll I'll always be thankful to Alex.

Teaching SMC: Evolving Law and Strategy

J Basser 11:01

Well that's good. I mean he's always um you know, you talk about foot drop. Um, you know, our buddy Ray here, he's uh uh I think he's got both his foot drop now and uh he fought that and basically he had the help of one of Mr. James Cripps. He finally used Alex later on to in in in his process to get his R2, but uh uh that foot drop and that you know, you get that second L that that's a that's a that's a big deal when it comes to touching more than compensation.

Ray Cobb 11:32

Right. And it's uh when you talk about when you talk about foot drop, one thing that James and I figured out several years ago now, I've had it for eight or ten years. And uh the most important thing is if you put in for foot drop loss of use at the same time, they're gonna kick you in into the into a different category that yeah, you'll get it, but it will keep you from getting up to that R2. Um we both have a friend that we know that's been on the show with us before, John, that that did just exactly that, which we had uh made the suggestion that he not do that, that he do one, and then when he wins the first one, he go after the second one. Well, he sacall was like, I want all my money all at one time. And because of that, he ended up, I think, with um I think he's eight years of not being able to get to the R2 level. Now he finally just a few two or three months ago, finally reached and was able to get to that R2. But not without going through a lot of uh additional steps and jumps and hoops and uh and exams, um, which if he had taken them one at a time, which I think Alex and I even talked about that years ago, um it's easier to get one approved and get it done correctly than to get two approved. They like to call it bilateral and put you into the P award instead of uh uh because two L's put you to the O and the O puts you to the next level of standard aid attendance for special monthly compensation. And that's a big deal if you're already R1 because the next level is R2. If you're standard, it puts you to R one. So if you do it correctly, you're okay, but if you don't do it correctly, you're gonna have a hard time getting to R1 and R2.

Speakers 13:45

Well, it's like it's like uh going up Mount Everest. It helps to have a Sherpa. Like I said, trying to train all these gals here and and and other people is help, Ray, I'm 74 years old. Well, I'm holding my hand up so it's not shaking. If I put it down here on the keyboard, it goes all over the place. But that's okay. I I don't know which one it is, whether it's Parkinson's or Parkinson's. I don't care, but I can smell it coming a mile away. And when I reach the point where things really get bad, I'm gonna be smart enough and pull the plug on myself and and just refer other people. I'll probably keep my accreditation

Foot Drop, Loss of Use, and Sequencing

Speakers 14:31

just so I have access to VBMS. But I'm gonna be handing these things out like a poker chips at a 21 table when I when I reach that point.

J Basser 14:48

You know, you guys are you guys are pretty amazing what you do. I mean, uh you know you're should be the Alex, you don't have time to turn around. And you go to this Nova Commerce for a week and come back, and you probably just you probably bury it under under under a bunch of stuff and get back.

Speakers 15:06

Yeah, I got 10 new powers of attorneys stacked up here on my desk. I haven't even written yet. I like to put them and hand them out uh if I can to pass them out to other people, and uh handing them out to about 15 different people. So I said it's like a like a poker game, you know. You want another hit? Daisy, but uh she's a whippet, she belongs to my son. I'm babysitting there in case you're wondering what this head is popping up down there on the screen.

J Basser 15:45

Well Mr. Doolittle. Dr. Doolittle. No. But uh Ginny, uh how how how some of your how some of your things go as far as client well, are you having pretty success in getting people connected or at the BBA or the board level? Because I know we want to try to keep it at the regional office as long as possible, but lately I've seen so many crazy stupid denials based on nothing that uh I don't know what they're doing. It's a mess.

Jennifer Lohnes 16:18

Yeah, um I actually had a really good one um higher level review last week. Um it was a request for revision where we we were able to get um this guy service an earlier factive date for his sleep apnea back to 1998. So life-changing money for him, and it was off of a higher level review. So I've I've been um I've been having some pretty good luck at the regional office, but for the most part, it's going pretty well at the BBA as well. Turn the camera off, thankfully. Otherwise, I'll call West for those.

J Basser 16:58

Well, I mean it's what you know, it is what it is. Um people do have a uh you know a knack for certain things, but uh it's good that you can win at the HLR level, and I've seen a lot of folks win at HLR, and then I've seen a lot of folks not win at HLR. I guess it all depends on uh because I know HLRs are different locations in the regional offices. You know, you do an HLRs, it goes to what uh somewhere in Florida and somewhere else. So I've got one now, and HLR would be the second trip for an agent in this claim that uh basically rejected by the regional office because they didn't want to make the decision. I guess they wanted to punt. That's another issue. You know, sometimes the RO didn't want to write a claim, and uh so I I think I called that a BVA deferral.

Jennifer Lohnes 17:43

Yeah, yeah, I will say most of the SMC claims that I've had for at least that second aid in attendance have had to go to the board. Oh yeah. So um I've been lucky a few times with at least the first aid in attendance, but everything else

Climbing to R1/R2 Without Traps

Jennifer Lohnes 18:00

I've had to take to the board.

Speakers 18:01

I just kenny, I just got one day before yesterday, and it was no Johnny, you only get one aid in attendance. I'm sorry, it won't do a customer. It says it run away a decision. No, you're already getting aid in attendance, dude. That would be and I got another one from the board from uh John Crowley, and it was just anti-laska. I'm sorry you can't get there from here. You are you don't qualify for R2, so you can't get to T. I even have a Mendic IMO saying this person is charcoal. He cannot possibly exist outside of a hospital and crawling rights. And besides, there's nothing there that says he needs to be institutionalized. So you're out of here, Jack. That's headed to the TABC. I just handed that to Wesley yesterday.

Jennifer Lohnes 18:58

Well, that one's tough because I mean, where what would happen if they didn't have the caregiver, right? Like they it's like they they require that box to be checked on the 2680, but but oftentimes if you have a caregiver, you're not you're not going to be institutionalized.

Speakers 19:15

Well, you can always hire visiting angels to fill in that if you're a single or a widower or something like that. They didn't have any daughters that were willing to do it. There's there's avenues to do it, just like there's avenues for a fiduciary, as opposed to having the wife or the sister or somebody do that for you or mom.

J Basser 19:39

A lot of times the fiduciaries you've got to be careful because if uh sometimes I've seen the regional office take uh uh take the veteran's fiduciary status instead of give it to the wife or you know, maybe a parent or somebody in the family, they give it to another attorney somewhere. Oh yeah. In order to ask for uh, you know, yeah, it's it's it can get pretty ugly.

Speakers 20:02

Well, they pay them buck fifty a month to do nothing, basically. I'll tell you what the problem is, is I see it, and I've been talking with quite a few people around me here in this business. Physical year ends September 30th, and the new the new chow line starts on October 1st. We're seeing eight wheelbarrow loads of BVA decisions coming out, and they're all wrong. Very few of them grant anything. 100 bucks says on October 2nd you're gonna see a complete change. They'll all be granting them because they have money again. The decisions I see come out between September 1 and September 30th almost invariably all have to be appealed.

Jennifer Lohnes 20:54

Jenny, I'm wishing I wouldn't take any case to the board.

Speakers 20:59

Have you ever got seen a preliminary rating decision code sheet and uh SMC calculator come out on 825, and all of a sudden on 918 there's

Denials, HLR Wins, and Sleep Apnea EED

Speakers 21:10

a brand new rating decision, and the old one disappeared? Well, I print the old ones and I use them, and I'll go back in on a supplemental and says, hey guys, you already gave them SMC. Yes, you can't take it back.

Jennifer Lohnes 21:23

Right, right. I I save all my good decisions.

Speakers 21:26

Oh yeah, oh yeah. The moment I populate, I print that sucker before it goes bye-bye.

Jennifer Lohnes 21:35

Right, right. How's it going for you, Tamara?

Guest 21:40

You know, I have a couple of cases Alex gave me that I've been building up, and one of them, as soon as I got the guy the hundred percent, they, oh my god, we made a mistake and come wanted to take it back. And I had to, well, actually, I sent out an SOS. Alex responded to one of them, and I got him to um got some other claims of his, you know, got some new claims, some of the residuals and stuff included. And uh this guy had brain cancer, and you could see every screw and every plate right in the top of his head. Like if you looked at it, I took some good, really graphic pictures. And I think that um, I think that the people that he started seeing, they really wanted to help him, you know. And so they did get him, got him to the 100%, got his chapter 35 back, you know. But but that was yeah, and then I had a couple other that they're trying to take away too. So I'm still waiting for some of my other ones to just come through. Like Alex says, you have to kind of build them. But what I was wondering is when is the time gonna come where, because I have a new guy and he was denied because he got it already, right? Uh, and so I'm working with him. But but when is this whole thing gonna get to the point where we can get the Wendy's at the at the uh regional office? Alex has been going to the board for years now, and now we got a decision in our favor. How long is that gonna take to trickle down? I'm pretty new at this, so I don't know how long that kind of thing takes.

Jennifer Lohnes 23:05

As far as Barry, they haven't updated their regional, have they, Alex?

Guest 23:09

I don't know.

Speakers 23:13

For these older guys like 75-ish kind of crew, they generally come right back and promulgate them quickly, wrong, I might add, because they'll get the effective paint wrong, they'll get the percentage wrong, they'll lowball you uh with that 30% for your heart, and then say they won't tell you even, they'll just say, we're gonna get some exams. Here's a 30 to hold your place in line, they'll send you out for a CNP, come back and give you the 100, and and finally grant it back where it's supposed to be if you appeal it. But I can't get anybody to give me the correct effective data anymore. They just don't. And I think they're like browbeating the OIG and saying, would somebody please fix the M21 so we don't have to suffer this? It costs the the client money.

Guest 24:10

We'd be cost everybody money. The government, everybody.

Speakers 24:15

God, it just irks me no end to see this gross inefficiency because they're using AI, OCR, and scanning everything. It's all being done by machines, and machines can't see the illogic of having an original claim with a 526 in 2015, and you finally grant after three BVA opinions and remands, and they say, Yep, your service connected. That service connected is back to 2015, not the day of the CFP exam. They just don't. It doesn't compute because it's a machine, it's not a human being. When I first started in this business in 1989,

Board Patterns, Fiscal-Year Quirks, and Errors

Speakers 25:00

I went down and had a little attitude talk with my rating officer at the regional office. And there was a secretary at a front desk, and I said, Hey, is John in? Because I could see his name on my decision. She says, Yeah, third third desk down on the left, and just walk back there and sit down. Hi, John, my name's Alex. Oh, yeah, I read your file. I said, Yeah, well, cool. How come I didn't win? He says, Well, yeah, you gotta have more mustard on your hot dog, son. And he was also the guy that did my VA cla uh VA home loan. He was a man of jack of all trades. He later became the regional office uh director, even though he didn't have a college degree. That was back before they were used SES guys. But he was much more now, everything's locked. Metal detectors, dogs that bite you, and everything else. You cannot get into the vault where the uh Veteran Service Center is, where the Raiders are.

J Basser 26:08

That's the Tom Cruise effect, Alex.

Speakers 26:11

Did you hear the Tom Cruise effect? No, I'm not familiar with that one, John, but I have a sneaky suspicion you're gonna tell me all about it.

J Basser 26:19

You know, back in the first Jack Reacher movie. Um Tom Cruise was interviewed by the chief of police there in the small town. And, you know, of course, Jack Reacher was also an investigator for the Army, and uh uh the policeman asked him, Well, we're the same. There's no difference between you and I. So Tom Cruise turned and looked at the police chief and said, Yes, there's one difference. He said, What's that? He said, The people that I investigate are train killers. That's the Tom Cruise effect. Because I used to rotate these guys around every so often, too. You know, they'd move their positions, you know, it's like musical chairs in that office. One would stay around a year or two and go to the next place. And it's kept moving around and around and around. And then when they started this national work queue and everybody started grabbing files off the computer, then things changed a little bit. And as far as the uh screws up in the numbers being messed up as far as retro and things like that, it's all a mathematical equation because their system is not antiquated to handle the information going into it, and it's something it's a technical issue. Personally, I take the whole system and I'd go down to Fort Bellevore and take it into one of them little buildings there where all them geniuses work and uh let them fix it with a uh and then they bring put it back in play and it worked just fine.

Jennifer Lohnes 27:44

I don't know if I can ask this, but then what do you guys think about um the talk about potentially hinging uh benefits on income? Because I what I wonder is just even that aside, with all the issues with effective dates and ratings, you know, how are you gonna now throw in veteran income? You know, who's gonna be calculating all this out and what this this particular veteran, you know, should be getting, right? Um I think there's been kind of messed up.

J Basser 28:19

Speaking

Caregivers, R2 Standards, and Institutionalization

J Basser 28:20

of with a couple of congressional friends that I have, uh they've got a group of people who sit in one building here in DC, have a couple miles from you. And they got this big basement building, they go in and sit down and they put a round table, and they got this big wall set up and they write these ideas up, put them on plaster, and throw them up against the wall and see if they stick. It's called the Congressional Budget Office. And uh I do personally believe that this is just a stink tank. Uh in order to change anything they have, Congress is gonna have to pass a law to change it.

unknown 28:52

Yeah.

J Basser 28:52

Because the title, you know. And in order to get these people to work together, it's like that's not gonna happen. Because you've got so much division between these two bunch of people now, these different parties, you know, that they're not gonna get along. Uh you're gonna see a major brawl before you see them pass something that's effective for veterans.

unknown 29:12

Yeah.

J Basser 29:13

It's like uh what's that one country I saw the other day that uh they got into it and was duping it out in their commerce. Well, with the club. The CBO's A. It's basically it's all they do. I mean, you see it every year, you hear the rumors, yeah, they're gonna cut you, they're gonna cut, they're gonna tax you, they're gonna do everything. And all of a sudden these veterans see this, next thing you know, the line lights up, and everybody's panicking over nothing.

Jennifer Lohnes 29:38

Yeah, yeah, that's that's true. I I had a number of calls today, so I've been thinking it's been on my mind.

Speakers 29:44

Well they discussed it. Well, but John, they discussed the fact that they very well may be jacking up the rates on SMC, which should be interesting because of the high cost of caregivers nowadays. I can remember days when people used to call SMCS the Corvette payment.

J Basser 30:08

Corvette payment.

Speakers 30:10

I don't think you can pay off a Kia right now with uh with that extra 400 a month.

J Basser 30:15

130, yeah. Well, that extra 400 bucks. I think, well, that might be a uh with the inflation, that might get you a I don't know, uh groceries for the week? Electric scooter. I I don't know. I mean, if you're feeding, you're feeding a lot of people like that. It's $400 a week. Might be uh it might be a little bit touchy.

Jennifer Lohnes 30:36

Yeah. Yeah.

J Basser 30:37

You know.

Speakers 30:39

I've got six here, so remember what they were talking about taking TDIU and saying, okay, we're putting you on TDIU, but now you have to give up Social Security to take TDIU. Well, I mean, hell are you gonna be at 90% in that environment plus Social Security, not not go over the top and then subtract half your income.

J Basser 31:06

They did it to federal employees under the FERS. Because if you go out on this bill under FERS, you get 60% your first two years per salary, regardless if you're a GF1 or uh SES4. You know. And after the second when the second year starts, you lose, you're down to 40%. And then if you have to file, which you are mandated to file for Social Security once you leave the federal employment under first. And once that happens, they cut you again when you get Social Security. So you barely have enough money coming in to be paid to pay the insurance because the insurance is very expensive in the federal service. You know, you got your insurance, your health insurance, your dental, and things like that. It can be very expensive. So you're lucky to be bringing home six, seven hundred dollars a month or or less. And you get it back when you get a certain age, but during that time period, you know, you've lost your backside. So, you know. So I don't put anything past them, but I don't think this is going to fly with the disabled vest because there's too many people that uh you know it's a simple card on our part. And uh, you know, once you uh I don't think that the voters would let that happen.

Jennifer Lohnes 32:17

Yeah.

Speakers 32:20

Well, I don't think there are very many people that are satisfied with their income less or less names Bezos or Gates or something like that. I

Fiduciaries, Automation, and Effective Dates

Speakers 32:30

mean, it's it's the cost of living exorbitant. It it look at 25 years ago, you could buy a house without your wife going to work. You can't do that anymore. It's kind of a crap as to whether two of you'd even qualify.

J Basser 32:45

That's just there was a guy once, Alex that said, I'm gonna start bottling water and selling to people, they'll buy it. People laughed at him.

Speakers 32:58

Well, I was my first house on PHA loan, the interest rate was 9.2%. And I hear people screaming in their you know, in their beer about a seven and a quarter. But it's all relative. Yeah, it's the cost of the house. That's the problem. But yeah, it's a deal breaker. I can remember back in 96, somebody said this, you know, you have these carbon offsets that people have to pay or big company has to pay in order to spew uh smokestack. So they got to pay the carbon credits. Well, that just gets passed down to us. Anytime the government starts tacking on a tax, and here's the best one I've heard yet. If you got a paddle board, one of them things about six, eight foot long, like a surfboard in the state of Washington coming up here. I don't care, it doesn't have a five horsepower Evan root on the back of it. You got to get that thing registered for $20 because you're using waterways, and we got to inspect it, make sure it doesn't have any bugs and muscles on it before you go to the next water and hole. Whoever heard of that? $20 to register your paddle board?

J Basser 34:23

Freshwater or salt water?

Speakers 34:25

Freshwater. I imagine salt water too. We're surrounded here.

J Basser 34:31

Zebra mussels is a big issue, but they started making them clean off the bath boats, these tournament fishermen, they go to lake to lake to lake to fish, and the zebra mussels would be transferred from one lake to the next, and they're vacation.

Speakers 34:42

I understand. We've been dealing with something called mill foil ever since the 70s. It clogs up lakes. It's like an algae. And boy, I've seen guys pull out of a boat, pull out of the water with their motor up, outboard or whatever, and just jump hanging off of it and drive off. Well, if you dip right back into the water someplace else, you've transferred. I don't care if it hung there for 10 weeks, dry, it comes back to life. It's night there. You gotta kill every fish in a lake in order to kill the milfoil.

J Basser 35:25

Well, actually. In the backwater.

Speakers 35:30

Well, I firmly hope that we are able to up the money that we pay to veterans because it's slave wages from my standpoint. Looking at what somebody gets for 50, 60, 70 percent, they're getting 1650 a month. You can't live off of that. Very probably you've got to spend a small fortune with an attorney trying to get social security on top of that. Um even then you you're just like one step above dog food to for subsistence. Shouldn't be that way.

J Basser 36:09

15 years ago,

Policy Rumors: Income Means-Testing Concerns

J Basser 36:10

they came out with a uh program or an idea, and uh this thing died in Congress. They wanted to give the people with the higher level of special monthly compensation awards within the VA a 25% increase. Well pretty quick, you know, once the once the money I call them uh money grubbers once they see it, you know, they're like, uh, no way, you know.

Speakers 36:35

What I'd like to know, Sean, is how do you operate a wife for $150 extra per month? That's a shoe bill. So what's the difference between SMCS married and unmarried? I I don't buy that work.

J Basser 37:02

Okay, he pays $136 and so you know.

Speakers 37:08

Wesley and I were talking uh uh at the table there in between things, and and he says, So how many pairs of shoes did your wife bring? I said, eight. I just sit on my suitcase to get it zip shot.

Guest 37:32

Well, since I was up and come for three days, I only had six pairs.

Speakers 37:37

I did it with two.

Guest 37:39

I stopped off in Atlanta where I am now. I stopped in Atlanta and dropped off another couple of suitcases. I'm gonna be out here for a couple of weeks. Gotta have choices, you know. What you're gonna feel like when you get up, you know.

Ray Cobb 37:56

We went out west for the last three weeks. Traveled through New Mexico and Colorado, and we were about four days before we're supposed to leave. I looked at Pam and says, How are we gonna get all this stuff back? Then we go buy another suitcase, put it on.

Speakers 38:17

That's what we had to do. That's what we had to do right when Debbie had uh Amazon dropping off at the hotel.

Guest 38:27

You ordered stuff that had it dropped off at the hotel?

Speakers 38:30

Well, she went to that White House gift shop right across from the White House. We took the suitcase with us.

Guest 38:39

Oh, okay.

J Basser 38:55

But uh, did y'all learn anything at the Noble Conference? Did uh did West did Wesley

Cost of Living, SMC Rates, and Reality

J Basser 39:00

get a present this year?

Jennifer Lohnes 39:01

He did.

J Basser 39:03

Oh, okay. Oh yeah, yeah.

Jennifer Lohnes 39:09

He it was a really good presentation he did with Ben Binder.

Guest 39:14

That's all right.

J Basser 39:18

Did Ben show up?

Jennifer Lohnes 39:19

Yeah, he did.

J Basser 39:20

Was Ben there too? Okay.

Jennifer Lohnes 39:22

He was there, yes. Yeah. Good stuff.

J Basser 39:26

Well, that's good because I'm one of their clients right now. We got one going to the we've got one going to the next level.

Jennifer Lohnes 39:32

Oh, do you?

J Basser 39:34

Yeah.

Jennifer Lohnes 39:34

You're in the right hands then.

J Basser 39:37

So, I mean, uh the BVA couldn't read and the C A B C uh, I think needed glasses because it it's right, it's right on their nose, but they won't listen to nobody. Well, I'm gonna be able to we can get up and argue something ourselves, you know.

Jennifer Lohnes 39:50

The CABC denied it?

J Basser 39:53

Yes.

Jennifer Lohnes 39:54

Oh, okay. All right. So you're taking it. Okay, so you're taking it higher.

J Basser 39:59

Yeah.

Jennifer Lohnes 39:59

All right.

J Basser 40:00

I think it always Supreme Court if I have to.

Jennifer Lohnes 40:04

Right, right. Well, you're definitely in the right hands.

J Basser 40:09

Okay. But uh now got a question for you now. When you um What does most of your clients help? Like, how do you get them? Are they referrals or just contact you out of the blue?

Jennifer Lohnes 40:24

Or yeah, it's usually client referrals, just passing clients to me.

Guest 40:30

All of mine come through Nova or OGC. I have not advertised at all, and I have more than I can handle right now with the style of living I want to have in my 70s. You know, I don't want to be like working eight days, eight days a week. But yeah, I have I have not uh I started out with a couple of uh PacTAC clients that were friends, and then I think I've had two referrals, but everything else, they just sort of I found you on OGC. I found, you know, so they find me. Okay.

J Basser 41:03

Uh do you guys uh do any uh the Facebook groups like uh Doug Hanges pages?

Jennifer Lohnes 41:09

I'm on his group, uh, but I don't, I don't, I'm not sure what the rules are there, so I I don't I haven't responded to anything on his group.

J Basser 41:17

Basically it's cut and dry. I mean it's uh you know simple answers.

Jennifer Lohnes 41:22

Yeah, but I don't I don't know if I should be advertising the fact that I'm an attorney or just you know answer questions.

J Basser 41:30

Just answer the question, you don't have to choose your name. And if I see somebody I think that that should go your way, then I'll push them your way. That's what I do. I put I put people in the right direction.

unknown 41:40

Yeah.

J Basser 41:41

I'm not an agent. Of course I could have been one years ago. I probably forgot more on the test than people have learned. But that's what I do, and uh, you know, I mean I put people in the right direction for the right people. Yeah. Um, you know, we brought Mr. Ray to Alex there once. That's what I do. And uh it's been my battle with the BA's been uh a long, hard fought one. It's like chopping down a uh oak tree with a leatherman tool. With a leather tool? A leatherman tool, you know, little fold-up little tools that got the little knife and saw blades.

Guest 42:20

Oh the hell oh, okay.

J Basser 42:24

It takes a while to do that, so but um that's what we do. We do we do the show.

Community, Referrals, and Workflows

J Basser 42:30

We do the show, and you know, we're we're candid and you know, um, we talk to a lot of good people and uh we have a lot of you know follow followers and things like that. So, you know, you might you might you possibly you probably get uh I don't think you're gonna get overwhelmed. Now, for the old podcast radio show we did, you probably would be, you know, but we used to use Borrow Talk and they went under. Uh I guess of the Titanic of broadcasting, so they went under and had no survivors, so lost all hands.

Jennifer Lohnes 43:03

Well, well, I like I I really I enjoy this. I enjoy helping. I enjoy helping and doing something. It just this has been a really good fit for me.

J Basser 43:21

So do you have to staff yourself or you I mean you have to have you have to have somebody help you?

Jennifer Lohnes 43:26

No house. I mean we could just kidding. It's no no, it's just me.

J Basser 43:31

Just you. So you answer the phone, do everything, building it all.

Jennifer Lohnes 43:34

No.

J Basser 43:36

Well, you got time for your kids.

Jennifer Lohnes 43:37

That's what'd you say?

J Basser 43:39

I don't think you got time for that, to you the truth, you know, because you got a busy lifestyle, busy, busy.

Jennifer Lohnes 43:44

Well, I you know, I do things when I I I probably work all the time. So, you know, I I think I mean most of my clients have my personal cell phone number, and I, you know, I'm answering calls and text messages nine, ten o'clock at night. Um, I'm pretty pretty accessible.

Guest 44:03

My brother-in-law um told me uh he knew um I I knew when I retired from the state I was gonna try to do something with veterans of law. Um, but my brother-in-law told me that he had applied for accreditation as a as an agent. And I said, Oh, you you get good credit? He said, You can get accredited. So I looked into it, that was three years ago. He still hasn't gotten it yet. And of course, it didn't take long for me to get mine. So he knows a lot. I mean, he's very self-taught, he he he knows a lot, and um, so he will uh he will um jump in and help me some on some things, you know, just so I won't get overwhelmed by the paperwork and stuff.

J Basser 44:41

Yeah, it's taking two over two years right now, might be longer in order to get in three for him. But once he does, it takes it easy takes a couple of weeks to get results back, and once he does, they'll give us cat, you know, they'll give us information stuff to get the ground running.

Guest 45:00

And he's just ready to go. He's got his LLC set up and everything. He's just ready to go.

unknown 45:05

Oh wow.

J Basser 45:06

It takes a while. Um we have uh on Doug Haynes' site there, you know, he uh he he posts. I mean, this guy's amazing. Um he's got this uh site called How Does How How VA Disability Works. You guys ever think that?

Jennifer Lohnes 45:22

Yeah, yeah. His his Facebook group and his site, I mean it's he's he's got a lot of it's amazing.

J Basser 45:28

It is, it really is. Right. Look him out and uh just join the group. You know, if uh Jim or Doni is part of it, there's

Facebook Groups, Outreach, and Capacity

J Basser 45:40

a lot of folks, you know. Um but you know, Doug's a pretty amazing guy, and that's another product of this guy sitting right here.

Guest 45:49

Alan? Oh, you're in everything, aren't you? Busybody.

Speakers 45:58

I did all that good work over and had it, and then they kicked me in the teeth even after I got the owner in attendance. No good deed goes unpunished, gentlemen.

J Basser 46:11

I used to be I used to be the second command that had it. You know that, Alex?

Speakers 46:16

I know that. I tried desperately to help as many people as I could over there. I didn't get a lot of referrals, but I didn't hand out a lot of advice. And I'm glad to know that there's a lot of people who sent me back emails and said, Thank you very much for showing me how to win. So I know I did good work. But I'm so busy now, I don't have time to go on Facebook and well, I hell, I can't even count them all, but I belong to Doug Haynes' group, and then it changed to another group, and then five more people said, Would you join my group? And if I did all that, I could do that all day long, and I'd never ever have any clients.

J Basser 46:58

Exactly right. I mean, that's that's I mean, you're looking at the membership numbers in the groups alone are enormous.

unknown 47:04

Yeah.

J Basser 47:04

One website that we were talking about earlier, Alex only had like 26,000 members on at their max. Okay. These Facebook groups are pushing 100,000 plus.

unknown 47:14

Yeah.

Speakers 47:16

Well, that's good. I see all these read it, Reddit uh blogs and stuff, and I see my name being taken in vain on there. Like, you need to go see Alex. Well, the upshot of that, the worst upshot was that all four guys that were in a Humvee or an MRAP that got blown up in Afghanistan, all four of them showed up on my doorstep at the same time and said, We come as a group. Did you give them the Alex Graham package now? I did. And I even took the guy who died on the roof. His wife hadn't got DIC yet, and I got her her DIC for free, of course. Yeah, I got all of them. I only have one left that they're giving him static on his uh T. The rest of them I got all the way through to T. You're getting through. You're good or done. My my record's unblemished. I don't I'm not bragging. It's just uh I don't lose. There's one of your buddies in DMC. I met him at your gig there a couple three years ago.

Backlogs, Legacy, and Direct Review Timing

Speakers 48:30

And I'm gonna get that down.

J Basser 48:35

It'll quit ringing. That was a John that came on the show what a goal, but he got a phone call. And when he did, this auto feature on this thing will kick you off to answer your phone. Usually put you back in. So I didn't see his rejoining claim. Maybe that's him calling you. Possibility. You know, I mean, you're looking at uh you get a lot of people involved, and you know, you don't have so much size of the screen, you know. We can uh more people you get it looks like a birdie bunch right now.

Speakers 49:09

Well, I'm glad you show 456 little individual little TV screens of everybody that's you're watching your show.

J Basser 49:20

Pretty bad, yeah. No. Um I'm glad to see you guys are doing well. And uh um I know you guys are if you're not busy, you're gonna be. Um because I don't see nothing, you know, there's nothing stopping VA claims in the future. Um it's uh especially with the way these regional officers are denying claims because the appeal process has got to increase because you tell them, oh yeah, we reduced the backlog by 41%. Not telling you that the appeals backlog is something by how many percent? 41. Okay.

Speakers 49:56

You remember Jeannie Bates, Ray? Yeah. There I found out finally from uh Brad Hennings, another former veterans law judge. He was talking about this during the NOVA conference, and he says, they got guys who've been waiting, had hearings, and still waiting for a decision. And Jeannie, we did her hearing in April of last year. And I can't dynamite that thing out of the region or the BVA. It's stuck up there like bubble gum. I don't know, can't get it loose, can't get a decision on it.

Ray Cobb 50:36

Her husband passed away 15 years ago.

Speakers 50:39

Yeah, 2015. I know I took it in 2021. Yeah.

J Basser 50:47

Yeah, okay. That's what is it? The cockroach?

unknown 50:50

What's that?

Ray Cobb 50:51

Yeah, Judy Pace was uh was at our conference, and uh yeah, that's where she met listened to Matt Alex.

Speakers 50:59

It's good to

HLR vs Board: When to Escalate

Speakers 51:00

agree to take her off. She slid slid up to me in lunchtime and put her arm through mine and hauled me in there to the ravioli and said, I want to talk to you, Mr. Graham.

J Basser 51:15

Outreach is a big thing in this business, okay? I mean, uh we do a lot of it and we try to get together when we can. Um, you know, I mean, Ray has been instrumental uh in just spreading the word. I mean, he actually has a uh weekly radio show on uh uh actual radio station down in Winchester, Tennessee, West Calvin, Tennessee. And uh he does a lot of stuff. He used to be the uh Grand Poo Ball American Legion down there, and uh he's done some amazing things. And now he's kind of wanting to back off and kind of semi-retired a little bit, so he decided to come on and start doing this and look at the PA C and Peace.

Contacts, Closing Thanks, and Sign-Off

Jennifer Lohnes 54:08

Ridiculous.

J Basser 54:09

What do you guys think about these uh decisions that these veterans are receiving? Here's a here's a good one. Say veteran files for eight to ten if Alex, you've seen this. And the veteran goes to the CMP exam, and the examiner goes totally in the veteran's favor. His own personal position writes out the form, you know, puts it out, turns it in. The veter gets a denial letter, but no actual reason for the denial. There's nothing you would tell you why they denied your claim. But under favorable findings, yeah, favorable findings. The veteran requires aid attendance. You know, I've had a hundred of those.

Speakers 54:52

I'll bet you generally appeal that right to the board.

Jennifer Lohnes 54:58

They just conceded you need aid in attendance.

Speakers 55:00

Yeah, it's open and shut. Case point, though. What are we doing here?

Jennifer Lohnes 55:05

Right.

J Basser 55:06

We're trying it should go to an HLR first, though, just in case they can HLR was willing to overturn it.

Jennifer Lohnes 55:13

I might go right to the board for that.

Speakers 55:15

Yeah, I used to do that. It just sets you back four or six months from going to the board. Why why waste your time? They don't know what they're doing at the regional level.

Jennifer Lohnes 55:25

And with the board, it's what eight, nine, nine to twelve months for a decision for an HLR. You're still looking at four to six months.

J Basser 55:33

It took me 27 months just to go to a uh DR direct review the first time.

Jennifer Lohnes 55:38

Yeah, but they're they they've sped up. I mean, they're it's about nine to twelve months, I think, right now, for the direct view without a without an AOD.

J Basser 55:47

Well, you gotta realize too that back then I think there was a directive out to get rid of legacy first. So they were kind of piling all the legacy stuff.

Jennifer Lohnes 55:55

Right, right.

J Basser 55:57

Yeah, okay. Right. But yeah, listen, guys. We're buried to wind down. Jim, why don't you give your contact information? Maybe if you uh your website information now, in case the listeners want to see this, uh yeah, it'll be up forever.

Jennifer Lohnes 56:09

And uh to email it to you.

J Basser 56:15

Uh you can email to me or you can say it online. You can, you know, if you want to you want to get it out there, uh, you know, uh just put it out and people will watch this thing and they'll contact if they need you.

Jennifer Lohnes 56:25

All right. Well my website is yeah, it's just www.lonuslaw.com.

J Basser 56:31

Okay. And she's uh driving the truck, folks. She is loneless law, she's the uh attorney, she's the secretary, she's the driver. She I'm serious. And she buys all the office supplies, she's office manager, she does it all. So Alex had to get some help. He had to get some staff to help him. He could do something, and uh of course Ray's got a caregiver. He kind of she helps him out a whole lot.

Jennifer Lohnes 57:00

And uh uh he is Debbie, right?

J Basser 57:05

Yeah, Debbie.

Speakers 57:07

Debbie took over my phone, uh my whole thing with the phones. I I it's the only way I can get anything done.

unknown 57:15

Yeah.

Guest 57:16

Do you still take the afternoon off to write, Alex? What's that? You still take do you still take the afternoon off to write?

Speakers 57:23

I write legal briefs from 12 through to 5 o'clock usually. That's a good idea. I'm trying to take Sundays uh and write a blog as frequently as I can. I got 17 blogs I want to write. I just don't have time to do them.

J Basser 57:44

I don't have the hands of it no more, guys. I used to write all the time, but just the rock and stuff I can do it, can't do anything. Barely hold a fishing pole.

Speakers 57:52

Damn, that that would be a crime.

J Basser 57:57

I start out throwing them in the water.

Speakers 58:03

Well, I'd see what I can do to fight with some hands.

J Basser 58:07

They're a lot easier to throw than a fishing lure. Well, let's see, guys, we're about out of time. Um tomorrow won't you give her give you what you got a website?

Guest 58:19

Yeah, I do. Uh it's kind of it's um it's uh www. uh tomor at Tamar Dyson Legal Services.com. Tomardyson Legal Services.com. Yeah. Somebody else had tomorrow Dyson. Can you believe somebody else had Dyson Legal Services?

J Basser 58:38

Well, they do that, things like that, you know. I mean, uh website, you know, it's always a crapshoot. You know, you gotta research it. You know, we didn't expose that. We had to do a couple this and that and have a little WordPress and do stuff. But yeah, it can it can be quite it can make you pull your hair out, but you know what? I don't have a problem. Oh, you don't, huh? Well listen, guys, we appreciate you guys for coming on. Okay. Good to meet you guys and and uh welcome to the family, I'll say. And uh Ray, thanks always, buddy, as usual.

Jennifer Lohnes 59:14

Thanks for having us on.

Guest 59:15

Thank you for having us, yeah.

J Basser 59:18

Alex, thank you for coming on too, buddy. We appreciate you. And uh we'll talk to you guys later. We'll see you guys again next week.

Guest 59:24

Everyone, take care. Bye bye. All right, bye.

J Basser 59:27

Bye.