Army Vets Get PTSD Discharge Class Action Lawsuit Certified

Army veterans have received Class certification for their lawsuit claiming that the Army did not give “liberal consideration” to diagnoses post-traumatic stress disorder when making disciplinary decisions, including deciding whether to grant someone honorable or dishonorable discharge.

The certified Class includes all Army, Army Reserve, and Army National Guard veterans who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars who received a less-than-honorable discharge status, were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder-related conditions caused by their time in the military, and who have not had their discharge status upgraded to honorable.

The decision to certify the Class of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans was made by U.S. District Judge Warren Eginton in Connecticut last week.

Plaintiff Stephen Kennedy filed the PTSD dishonorable discharge class action lawsuit in December 2016. He says that he joined the Army in 2006, and served in the Iraq war from 2007 to 2008.

Kennedy says that as a result of his service, he developed severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Kennedy argues that the Army failed to adequately treat his conditions.

Kennedy states that in 2009, he requested a leave of absence to attend his wedding, but was denied because the wedding conflicted with a scheduled training exercise.

He claims that he attended his wedding nonetheless, meaning he went AWOL, or “absent without leave.” Allegedly, he returned to Fort Bragg two weeks later. However, he says that he was then discharged not long after, and was given the status of a less-than-honorable discharge.

According to Kennedy’s Army discharge PTSD class action lawsuit, his post-traumatic stress disorder played a large role in his decision to go AWOL, and so, he petitioned the Army Discharge Review Board to upgrade his discharge status to honorable.

The Army less-than-honorable discharge class action lawsuit argues that the review board failed to refer to and subsequently failed to follow instructions on how to incorporate PTSD diagnoses into their discharge decisions.

The Army discharge class action lawsuit notes that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel instructed the board to give “liberal consideration” to PTSD diagnoses in discharge decisions.

On his decision to grant Class certification to the Iraq and Afghanistan war Army veterans, Judge Eginton said that “this court has jurisdiction to consider a lawsuit seeking redress where a military entity has failed to follow mandatory regulations resulting in prejudice to a service member.”

The Army Discharge Review Board did change Kennedy’s status to honorable after he filed a motion seeking Class certification.

Judge Eginton determined that this change did not invalidate Kennedy’s claims, saying that the board “has not demonstrated assurance that there exists no reasonable expectation that [the board] will continue to disregard the Hagel Memo PTSD directive in its review of discharge upgrade applications.”

Kennedy is represented by Jenner & Block LLP and by the Yale Law School’s Veterans Legal Services Clinic.

The PTSD Dishonorable Army Discharge Class Action Lawsuit is Stephen M. Kennedy, et al. v. Mark Esper Secretary of the Army, Case No. 3:16-cv-02010-WWE, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.