Yetter Coleman LLP associate Luke A. Schamel is representing the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) as co-petitioner in a lawsuit filed last week with the Commonwealth of Virginia against the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The suit alleges that the VA is not complying with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that veterans with lengthy service are entitled to full education benefits under both the Montgomery and Post-9/11 GI Bills.
The lawsuit, which the firm is handling pro bono, claims that the VA’s rules for evaluating education-benefits claims wrongfully impose a break-in-service requirement to deny full education benefits under both GI Bills despite the 2024 Supreme Court Rudisill decision guaranteeing them.
“Potentially thousands of veterans are being impacted by the VA’s [rules] that are denying benefits to veterans who don’t have this made-up break in service [requirement],” said Schamel in an interview with Hampton Roads, Virginia’s WVEC TV.
Schamel told WVEC TV that, under the VA’s rules, a veteran must have one period of service that qualifies for benefits under one bill, followed by a break in service, and then a second period of service that qualifies for benefits under the other bill to receive full benefits. Because of this, veterans with uninterrupted service are being denied full benefits.
That “makes no sense,” said Schamel. “It effectively punishes some of the longest-serving veterans who, like some of the petitioners in this lawsuit, served decades without taking any breaks.”
In addition to the VFW and the Commonwealth of Virginia, several individuals have joined the lawsuit as co-petitioners along with Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
Before becoming a lawyer, Schamel served as an officer in the United States Navy. He tries complex, high-stakes cases representing plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal court, with an emphasis on antitrust matters.