Disabled military veterans will take their fight for long-term benefits to a Halifax courtroom today where they will argue that they were wrongly denied payments because they received incorrect information from an insurer.
Stephane Hebert, who served in the Forces for 21 years before being involuntarily released in 2007, is part of the proposed class action suit against the federal government that is being heard in Federal Court.
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He says he didn’t apply for disability payments because he was told wrongly that he would not be entitled to them and that when he did eventually learn otherwise, federal officials told him he had missed a 120-day deadline.
Dan Wallace, the lawyer handling the case, says the information that led his clients to believe they would not receive any payments was based on a formula that takes salary and pensions into account.
But he says a previous court ruling in another matter involving veterans’ benefits found that the formula was flawed and should be overturned.
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This latest battle comes after Ottawa settled with about 7,500 claimants in a $887.8-million class-action lawsuit in 2013 over their clawed-back pension benefits.