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1 1 (December 3, 2019)

handle is hein.crs/govearx0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ______ SResearch Service An Army of Many: Veterans' Benefits Class Actions in the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims December 3, 2019 In September, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) issued a decision in Wolfe v. Wilkie requiring the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to readjudicate the claims of a group of veterans seeking reimbursement from VA for emergency medical care at non-VA hospitals-claims that potentially total billions of dollars. Wolfe is the most recent in a line of decisions beginning with Monk v. Shulkin in 2017, in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Federal Circuit) held that the CAVC has the authority to consider class actions. Since then, the CAVC has addressed class action motions on an ad hoc basis while developing formal class action procedures. To date, the CAVC has certified two classes- in Wolfe and Godsey v. Wilkie. These cases require the CAVC to break new legal ground to develop class action procedures suited to that court. More tangibly, these decisions may require VA to reallocate its resources to process affected claims that could result in billions of dollars in awards. This Sidebar (1) briefly introduces class actions and the CAVC; (2) examines the history and scope of the CAVC's emerging class action authority; and (3) discusses several issues for Congress related to that power. Background What Are Class Actions? Class actions have long served as procedural tools allowing courts to resolve large numbers of similar individual disputes at once, rather than in separate cases. When members of a large group (the class) have disputes with the same defendant that involve common questions of law or fact, a single member of the class (the class representative or named plaintiff) can potentially sue the defendant not only on the individual member's own behalf, but also on behalf of the other class members to resolve those common questions. If the proposed class action satisfies various prerequisites, the court will certify the class, and the case proceeds as a class action. The named plaintiff represents the other class members, who do not Congressional Research Service https://crsreports. congress.gov LSB10376 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress

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