Scores of US Army veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan had their class action lawsuit challenging their “bad paper,” or less-than-honorable discharges approved on Friday.
Such discharges deprive veterans of military benefits like mental health care, disability benefits and scholarships, even in cases when the discharges were linked to conditions like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and service-related traumatic brain injuries. Such discharges also impede veterans' career prospects.
The class action lawsuit, which was aided by the Yale Law School clinic, comprises claims from 50,000 former service members whose bad paper discharges stem from infractions of which the underlying cause could have been attributed to such an undiagnosed condition.
There are many different kinds of discharges from the US military. A “bad paper” discharge refers to when a service member is discharged because of some kind of misconduct — usually minor — that is not met with a court martial, which is required for a person to be dishonorably discharged.
Yale Law School Veterans Legal Services Clinic and co-counsel Jenner & Block are representing the veterans.
More than 650,000 servicemembers — nearly one-third of the 2 million Americans that served in Iraq and Afghanistan — suffer from PTSD. Despite the high number of troops afflicted with the condition, the US military continues to issue less-than-honorable discharges…
