Before his career in law, Jeffrey Douglas Kaliel was an Army veteran, having served in the Second Iraq War (Second Persian Gulf War). After serving in the military, Jeffrey Douglas Kaliel, a Washington, D.C.-based class-action attorney, attended Yale Law School.
In November the Yale Law School Veterans Clinic announced that it reached a settlement agreement with the Army regarding service members who received a less-than-honorable discharge from the military, culminating in them losing some of their benefits. The Veterans Clinic at the Yale Law School is where students and faculty represent veterans involved in cases against administrative agencies and courts, and Kennedy v. McCarthy is one of the cases with which the clinic was involved.
Kennedy v. McCarthy is a class-action involving military members who suffered from undiagnosed behavioral conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), military sexual trauma (MST), and traumatic brain injury (TBI), and received a less-than-honorable discharge from the Army Discharge Review Board (ADRB). Since the September 11 attacks, roughly 150,000 have been discharged from this branch of service under the same status, usually for misconduct attributable to one of the above conditions.
Even with directives from the Department of Defense that stipulated that the ADRB give liberal license to applications of members with PTSD or related conditions, the office gave veterans the less-than-honorable discharge, which prevented them from receiving full benefits. The settlement holds the Army responsible for making sure that veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq receive the chance to have their cases reviewed and discharge designation upgraded.
The settlement also provides for making sure that veterans who apply for upgrades benefit from future reforms. These reforms might include having access to medical evaluations and legal resources. Finally, ADRB is required to give each applicant a telephonic (by telephone) hearing.
Jeffrey Douglas Kaliel 