Society of Law(yer)s

I’m sure that you’ve heard about the VA data breach. As a veteran, I am naturally staying abreast of the situation. After all, I am quite conceivably one of the people whose data was compromised. When this story broke, I was mildly irritated that my personal information may be compromised – especially considering that I am careful about protecting my personal information. I shred my paid bills, I check my credit record to make sure it’s accurate, I only carry one credit card and monitor its activity, and I buy very few things online. At the same time though, I understand that there’s ‘no use crying over spilt milk.’ What matters is that the VA announced the data breach and said they’d notify the high-risk individuals by mail. A few days later, I received my notification.

Since then, I found out that the VA planned to offer free credit monitoring for people who are potentially impacted by the data breach. I thought this was a great idea! Hey, I know they shouldn’t have messed up in the first place, but this step showed that the VA was serious about making amends. Well, some ambulance-chasing asshole lawyer has put his two cents in, and a judge has temporarily barred the VA from publishing this offer. Why? Because this “concerned” lawyer has started a class-action lawsuit against the VA, and ‘accepting this offer could jeopardize their chance of winning more money in a private suit.’

Look, you prick of an opportunistic attorney; I’m so pissed at you that I can’t even figure out where to start trashing you. (Note to readers: Please feel free to take a short break while I pause to quit frothing at the mouth and compose my thoughts…)

(…We now return you to our regularly scheduled blog entry.) For starters, you don’t have me fooled, you slimy fuck. Your stated argument is about jeopardizing my chance of winning more money (geez, you even say that like it’s a lottery, not a lawsuit), which makes it painfully obvious that it’s about the money, not about doing the right thing.

Next, you don’t offer the option of letting the veterans make their own decision. You phrase your request in such a manner that removes our ability to make a choice. Apparently you believe that we’re your children, not your (potential) clients.

Oh, and let’s not overlook the fact that you’re asking us to punish the VA, which is funded by taxpayers. Let’s assume the VA loses this pending litigation and is forced to pay some figure to a certain number of veterans. For argument’s sake, we’ll say that amount is $10 million. Guess what there, sleaze ball attorney, the Federal Government will simply raise that money by raising our taxes. For those of you who don’t understand that, it means that if I get a settlement from this, then Uncle Sam will just tax it back, so basically I’m paying my own settlement. Oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

And then there’s the single worst aspect of this. The VA is a non-profit organization that’s already stretched too thin. Their mission is to care for veterans, and they’re already so under funded that they can’t do this effectively. Now some self-serving gutter slime wants to take more money from their coffers simply to line his pockets (and oh yeah, give a token amount to other veterans who MAY have suffered a little bit), at the expense of veterans who truly became disabled defending our country.

There’s something you fail to understand there, gutter-sucking attorney. You are failing to understand the mentality of members of the United States armed services. You see, from our first day in boot camp, we were taught the concept of teamwork. We were taught that the mission is more important than the individual; we learned to watch each others’ backs; and we were taught to honor and respect those soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who were wounded or killed in the defense of our great nation. By your actions, you have disgraced yourself. You went beyond simply asking us to turn our backs on our brothers and sisters who rely on the VA. By barring the VA from publicizing their proposed solution, you have effectively deceived us and deprived us of the opportunity to make an informed decision.

I agree that the VA made a mistake. Heck, it wasn’t even the VA, it was the mistake of an employee who disregarded established policies and procedures. But the VA came forward, owned up to its mistake, tried to prevent things from getting worse, and offered a reasonable restitution. The VA acted honorably, unlike the dollar-chasing attorney.

If you are a veteran who values the VA, if you respect the sacrifices of our disabled brothers in arms, I ask you to turn your backs on this prospective settlement. Let the VA do what it’s supposed to do… treat sick and wounded patriots. Don’t make them waste their time defending a frivolous lawsuit.