How does a medical malpractice case against the VA work?
The Department of Veterans Affairs is a department of the United States Government. As such, the Department generally can’t be sued due to the legal theory of “sovereign immunity.” In 1946 the Congress passed the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), which allows suits against the government under limited circumstances. The FTCA is the most common way that individuals are able to bring a lawsuit against the VA. One critical thing to remember about a lawsuit against the VA is that you cannot file suit until you have attempted to obtain an administrative remedy and waited for the government to evaluate your claim. What this means is that you can’t sue the VA until you fill out a form making a claim against the government. Then you have to wait six months to give the government a chance to investigate the claim. If, at the end of six months, the government doesn’t act on your claim, then you may file suit. If the government does act on your claim but you are not satisfied with the government’s
