Consolidated claims

[add55p]

Hello,

Is it standard procedure for an opened CUE claim (final 2 year old claim) to be closed and consolidated with a current appeal claim for the same condition?

It is my understanding that a decision should be issued by the VARO and a NOD filed by me before the claim can be placed in appeal status.

Any feedback from anyone will be greatly appreciated..

Thanks..

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[Berta]

It is unusual but possible and happened to me.

The Cues were set for BVA transfer but one was relevant to my Nehmer AO death claim.

Fortunately my AO claim was sent to a different RO,under Nehmer, and I immediately contacted them to 

decide the CUE issues because, not only had the IHD CUE and the other CUEs been filed about 5-6 years before the AO claim, ( 3 CUEs in the same decision)but  one of the CUEs had direct impact on the AO IHD claim. 

Nehmer Philadelphia VARO awarded it all.

A subsequent 4th CUE on the same decision, filed after that was a battle ,but a minor one and was awarded faster this time.

Certainly if a CUE is pending and could significantly impact an additional pending claim, it only makes sense that VA would try to 'consolidate' them, because if not ,and the claims get to the BVA, BVA could then need to remand if the BVA felt the claims were 'intricately interwoven' or words to that affect. I have seen situations like that at the BVA.

It makes sense, but there is no regulation that states VA has to use common sense.

 I am not sure at all how VA is handling this, in your situation.

Have you attempted to get a status on the CUE with IRIS?

Ask for an email reply and not a phone call.That way you have hard copy of their response.

 

[add55p]

Bertha

 

Thank you for your input.

Was your cue claim consolidated with an appeal, as I think mine was.

This particular CUE closed about a month ago and there is no information noted any where that a decision notice was sent. I have a pending appeals open for the same condition at the Regional Office.

That is why I am thinking that the VA consolidated this claim with the appeals.  It would have been nice for them to send me some sort of correspondence explaining what happened.

I sent an iris a couple of weeks ago in the ask a question section in EBENEFITS and have not yet received a response.

I stayed on hold for Peggy almost an hour before giving up. The music is still playing in my head!!

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[Berta]

Yes, the CUE claims were on appeal and set for BVA transfer,per IRIS and as soon as I learned that,and  since I had no vet rep ,and that meant no need to spend more time waiting for a 646 to be prepared,I acted fast and contacted the  Phila. RO right away, with what I stated was significant info they had to consider,regarding the pending CUE issues.

Hopefully you will get an IRIS response that makes sense.

What was the CUE claim for?

 

[add55p]

Bertha,

The cue is for a reported decision that could not have been made. I found out about the alleged decision after requesting a rating evaluation for an old pending claim.

The date the the VA stated that a decision was made, was on 13 days into the 60 days allowed to submit evidence.

In addition, I continuously received ongoing claim development correspondence from the AOJ for at least 3 years after the alleged decision date.

I found out about the alleged claim after requesting that It be rated for a decision a few years after being promised that a decision would be forth coming, but I never received. 

Instead of the new AOJ using all of my past evidence submitted to support the initial claim to readjudicate it on the merits, they treated it as a claimed to reopen and used the alleged bogus claim to state I needed new and material evidence to open it. The newly assigned AOJ did not mention any of the development correspondence that I continued to received for the unajudicated claim that they somehow say a decision was made months earlier. 

I still have not been able to get a copy of that particular alleged decision.

I subsequently won the appeal for the reopened claimed at the BVA and now have a couple of rating increase appeals opened.

 

As I stated earlier, I had a CUE open for the above reason, but it has been closed with no indication that a decision notice has been sent.

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[Berta]

"I still have not been able to get a copy of that particular alleged decision."

I assume you have scoured through everything in your C file.

It is imperative to refer to ,and even attach a copy of ,any decision that a CUE is filed on.

Do you have a vet rep? 

 

 

[add55p]

Bertha

No, I no longer have a VSO. The Veteran Service Organisation that I had only held up my claim for years. The told me, after I had already waited two and a half years for an DRO decision, that it would be another one to two year wait.

Only after I dropped them and started communicated directly with the VA did my claim began to move and was subsequently awarded by the Board.

Unfortunately, while VSOs may be helpful to some veterans, my experience was a bad one.

As for the alleged decision, there are related documents in the claims folder to show that the claim was still being processed and developed after long after the alleged deccision.

When I requested a rating decision on the open claim, VA treated it as a claim to reopen based on new wnd material evidence, rather than adjudicating the open claim.

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