Army lawyer slams disability retirement system - Military News, Air Force News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Air Force Times

Army lawyer slams disability retirement system - Military News, Air Force News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Air Force Times: "Army lawyer slams disability retirement system By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer Posted : Thursday Apr 5, 2007 21:53:58 EDT The Army disability retirement system stacks the deck against injured soldiers by forcing them to prove they have post-traumatic stress disorder, demanding physical evidence for traumatic brain injuries, and restricting access to rules and regulations they need to make their cases, said an Army lawyer who helps soldiers appeal their claims. “I think the problems are systemic,” said Steven Engle, head legal counsel for soldiers going through the disability physical evaluation system at Fort Lewis, Wash. “The rules are inequitable.” In some cases, he said, they may even be illegal. And the cases that are coming to define the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and musculoskeletal injuries — are the ones most affected by unfair or unclear rules coming from the service’s top-level Physical Disability Agency, Engle said."