Tort Law
Family Blames VA Secretary for Suicide
The family of an Iraq war veteran who committed suicide filed a federal lawsuit today claiming the Department of Veterans Affairs was negligent in his death.
The suit claims 23-year-old Jeffrey Lucey didn’t get the mental-health care he needed, according to the Associated Press. A VA medical center had treated Lucey for only a couple days and then released him, saying he needed to stop drinking before he could be assessed. His family tried to readmit him, to no avail, and he committed suicide two weeks later.
The suit comes on the heels of the filing of a class-action suit contending the VA failed to provide care for post-traumatic stress disorder. (See this ABAJournal.com post for further details.)
