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Stevens Assails Ruling on Veterans’ Cases

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Times Staff Writer

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens on Sunday sharply criticized a Supreme Court ruling that effectively prevents lawyers from representing veterans in service-connected benefits claims as a way of keeping the process simple and informal.

Stevens, speaking before the American Bar Assn., said he found “most disturbing” the court’s suggestion that allowing lawyers to participate can needlessly complicate such proceedings and “may do more harm than good.”

“That whole approach is an unfair characterization of our profession,” he said. “It really troubles me to have it thought that a lawyer’s participation could, generally speaking, be counterproductive. . . . I firmly believe that the independent bar has been a very important source of protection of liberty in this country.”

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Stevens made his comments during an informal review of court decisions affecting lawyers in the 1984-85 term that ended Tuesday. He spoke during a luncheon meeting co-sponsored by the ABA Section on Individual Rights and Responsibilities and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Although the justices often render vigorous, sometimes bitter dissents in court opinions, it is relatively unusual for them to criticize their colleagues or specific decisions in public appearances.

In other remarks Sunday, Stevens suggested that Congress consider enacting a law that would enable the court to appoint retired Supreme Court justices to participate in cases when the court is deadlocked 4 to 4. He pointed to its similarity to lower court procedures allowing participation of senior or semi-retired judges when a regular judge is unavailable.

Such tie votes automatically affirm the lower court ruling in the case but do not set nationwide precedent. During the current term, the court was deadlocked in eight cases in which Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. was unable to participate because he was recovering from surgery.

Stevens, known as a court maverick, was among three dissenters in the court’s ruling June 28 that upheld a 123-year-old law that puts a $10 limit on lawyers’ fees in death and disability claims by veterans or their survivors.

The court majority, in an opinion by Justice William H. Rehnquist, noted that one aim of the law was to ensure that successful claimants would not have to share benefit awards with attorneys. Another aim was to keep such administrative proceedings simple, informal and non-adversarial.

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Each year, about 800,000 benefits claims are filed in Veterans Administration offices. About half are granted, and about 30,000 are appealed. Most claimants are represented by trained volunteers from veterans’ service groups. About 2% are represented by lawyers.

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