Veterans Law Clinics Highlighted in NLSVCC Congressional Testimony (By Holly L. Christian, Detroit Mercy Veterans Law Clinic)

On May 11, 2022, Judy Clausen, Legal Skills Professor and Director of the Veterans and Servicemembers Legal Clinic at the University of Florida, testified on behalf of the National Law School Veterans Clinic Consortium in front of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity during its oversight hearing entitled “Reducing Veteran Suicide by Addressing Economic Risk Factors.” As legal and justice concerns may factor into a veteran’s economic well-being, a representative of the subcommittee reached out to NLSVCC to learn how law school clinics serve the veteran population and how they assist the unique needs of this group. As Deputy Chair of the Consortium’s Legislative Advocacy Committee, Professor Clausen led this effort by soliciting case outcomes, feedback, and input from other NLSVCC members before testifying.

Professor Clausen’s testimony first focused on four ways that veterans law clinics address upstream risks of suicide. These include advocacy in VA benefits claims and appeals, advocacy in discharge upgrades and recharacterizations, involvement in the criminal justice system, and civil legal representation and know your rights presentations. She highlighted the work and success of various veterans law clinics by providing numerical data and anecdotes.

Next, Professor Clausen posed ideas for reform such as: providing law school clinics with federal funding, expanding the G.I. Bill benefits to veterans with general discharges, enhancing VASH services and VA disability pension, allowing veterans with other than honorable discharges to retain eligibility for disability compensation, providing VA healthcare to veterans regardless of discharge status, using special measures to address homelessness, expediting the discharge review process for veterans who received bad paper discharges because of their sexual orientation under discriminatory policies such as Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and discharging servicemembers with no lower than a general when they have a diagnosed mental health condition and their only misconduct leading to discharge is marijuana use. Professor Clausen also suggested bringing together providers, advocates, veterans, and other stakeholders to plan and take cooperative action to address these types of issues through the creation of a CHALENG Project.

You can view the recorded testimony through this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrpGHhreyTY&t=6085s