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Show SUITS ON INSURANCE GLALMS SHOULD BE INVEST1GATKD, MILLER Washington, D. CWvorld war veterans who feel they are Justified Justi-fied in filing aulta against the government gov-ernment in Insurance claims, should first inquire, through The American Legion, or direct to the Veterans' !iiiea,u, Itself whether the claims have been submitted to to the Permanent and Total Board for Insurance Purposes, now in existence ex-istence In the Central Office of the Veterans' bureau. Thla advice Is the reply of Watson Wat-son B. Miller, national chairman of the Legion's Rehabilitation committee, com-mittee, to a movement on the part of some lawyer to encourage sulta. "I have witnessed the efforts of so-called wholesale lawyers in matters mat-ters of insurance suits, and I find one of the bad effects Is that too many men are encouraged In the lielief that they can win suit? against the government for their Insurance," Mr. Miller explained. "As a matter of fact, many do win their stilts, but many of those wlu ( have been encouaged to file have! lost them. It is not ardvlsable to raise the hopes of such veterans too highly. The Central Office of the Vet-.j erans bureau has in operation a Permanent and Total Board for Insurance In-surance Purposes, before which board will go all such cases, and cases where the veteran merely asks for administrative rating of permanent and total as of a date some time within the life of his policy, but has not Initiated suit. The board has been in existence for some time informally and the record rec-ord is that it has allowed a considerable con-siderable percentage of the some six or seven hundred cases they have handled. Their record Is very good, considering that the cases already al-ready acted upon were some of the most difficult ones In the bureau. The record of allowances ought to go higher as of the future. "The board la qualified to go into the matter aside from its medical med-ical features, such as check-up on social and Industrial history of the applicant and similar aspects germane ger-mane to the case. Its allowing decisions are final. Should they fall to allow, there la a farther appeal ap-peal to the administrator. This operation will save many a mon's going to court and will save the coat of the attorney's fees, trial, and delay. Much time will be saved sav-ed because the courts are over-burdened with Insurance cases in most jurisdictions at the present time. Also, it won't delay the cases which finally must go to court very much because the ratio of time , which would be required by the board to consider the applications for per-menent per-menent and total ratings, as related re-lated to the number of months, or iron fa arli toK mtiuf olanoa Hfc?ftNa years, which must elapse before they can ordinarily be heard by the courts, considering the congested conditions of the dockets, will not begiven." Utah Legionalre. |