Two veterans have filed a lawsuit against the Navy for not assigning accurate disability ratings and costing them benefits in a case that could affect thousands of sailors and Marines.
“Military disability retirement benefits are critical to veterans who are injured during their military service, and who depend on them for access to health care and other benefits for the service member and his or her family,” according to a statement by the nonprofit National Veterans Legal Services Program, whose attorneys filed the lawsuit Nov. 10 in the District Court for the District of Columbia.
The lawsuit states the Navy was not following its own regulations between April 30, 2002, and June 27, 2019, for assigning disability ratings for conditions that prevented a sailor or Marine from continuing to serve in the military.
The two plaintiffs named in the lawsuit, former sailor Kenneth Springs and former Marine Nathaniel Reese, suffered from medical issues during their service that made them “unfit” to continue their work and leave the military. They are suing the Navy because they received a combined disability rating that was lower than what they were required to receive, according to the lawsuit.
The attorneys representing Springs and Reese said they believe that based on Navy records at least 16,851 sailors and Marines left the military within the last six years who might have received a lower total disability rating with fewer benefits than they should have because their conditions were not rated correctly.
Springs and Reese were not able to medically retire due to the lower combined disability ratings that they were given for their medical issues. They want their military records, and those of the thousands of other veterans who fall under the class-action suit, to be corrected to show the combined disability rating that they should have received by the Navy, and in some cases could allow them a medical retirement…litary
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