The retired chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims has endorsed a Senate bill that would allow veterans to hire lawyers to help them with benefits claims. Frank Nebeker, who was the first chief judge fro the veterans court, says in an Aug. 21 letter released Tuesday by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee that S 2694, the Veterans Choice of Representation Act, is a worthy idea. The bill, passed by the Senate Aug. 3, would repeal a Civil War-era prohibition on veterans paying attorneys to represent them in filing benefits claims as long as it is part of the administrative process. It demeans our veterans to impose upon them a paternalistic policy which carries the inescapable implication that they lack sufficient intelligence and commonsense, Nebeker said.