The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims recently held a session of the court in an unusual courtroom \u2013 at the University of Detroit\u2019s Mercy Rule of Law.<\/p>\n
The CAVC heard oral arguments in a case at the law school as part of Mercy\u2019s Veterans Appellate Clinic in October. The clinic gives students an opportunity to represent veterans in their service-related disability claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs.<\/p>\n
The court heard the case of Michele D. Burden in her claim against the VA, which denied her widow\u2019s benefits in a dispute over the validity of her common law marriage in Alabama. The claimant was married to the veteran at the time of his death in 2004, but they had not been married for a full year. Since she was not married to the deceased before or during his service, she claimed that, under Alabama law, they had a common law marriage. (more…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims recently held a session of the court in an unusual courtroom \u2013 at the University of Detroit\u2019s Mercy Rule of Law. The CAVC heard oral arguments in a case at the law…<\/span><\/p>\n