Appeals Management Center

[militarynurse]

Does anyone know how long currently is the time at the AMC from when it first gets a BVA remand to finally making a decision?

[blackbird]

Does anyone know how long currently is the time at the AMC from when it first gets a BVA remand to finally making a decision?

Hi Militarynurse,

I'm not sure what your remand from the BVA was for, but in my case it was to order another C&P exam and for the doctor to weigh in with an etiology of my lumbar problem as related to a back injury I claimed in service. I received the remand letter from the VA on 5/18/09, received the letter from the Hunnington, West Virginia AMC on 7/01/2009 saying they had requested an exam for me. The appointment letter came on 8/14/2009 and the exam was done on 9/17/2009. Hope this helps and good luck!!!

Blackbird

[vaf]

Does anyone know how long currently is the time at the AMC from when it first gets a BVA remand to finally making a decision?

October 2005 until we got tired of waiting for the AMC to issue a Supplemental Statement of the Case. We filed a petition for a Writ of Mandamus in April 2008, received the SSOC in November 2008, only due to the fact that the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims was monitoring the situation and kept them on the short leash.

However, the story's not over...

The Regional Office here told the Board that my husband withdrew his remanded appeals in May of this year, when he did no such thing. So now, we've filed a second petition for a Writ of Mandamus, to make sure the Court monitors the situation, so that the VA won't mishandle or discard these appeals again.

Withdrawing appeals in the veteran's name when the veteran knows nothing about it -- this may be a new tactic since they can't shred claims anymore...

[dav_marine72]

I just won 4 remands at the U.S. court. My lawyer said you can either have me follow this back to the BVA with me cracking the whip and get a quick decision or go at it alone with the BVA which possibly means them sending it to the AMC and getting lost in a black hole. She said she has dealt with vets that have been stuck at the AMC for years.

Granted she has a reason to want to follow my case back to the BVA (cash). However, she has been a good lawyer and I am so sick of dealing with VA idiots I'd gladly pay 20% to have her crack the whip and get me a decision at the BVA.

From what I have read out here from others the AMC seems to be a graveyard. See if anyone on here knows how to get your case away from there. Do you have a lawyer?

[vaf]

To my mind, I wouldn't wait more than a year and a half at the max waiting for the AMC to develop a Board remanded appeal and issue an SSOC before petitioning for a Writ of Mandamus, a request for timely relief. We waited far too long the first time around, but that's how we eventually got it out of there.

This time, we waited from November 2008 until July 2009 for the Board to decide whether or not to agree with the SSOC from the AMC denying the appeal, before we started pressing the issue. The VARO screwed it up by telling the Board the veteran withdrew the appeal, and what we want the Court to tell us now is how that happened and to make sure the Board makes a timely decision, again under Court scrutiny. We suspect this appeal withdrawal was payback for filing the first writ petition, but we watched the claim so closely that we caught it after a delay of several months, not years. It could have been much worse.

How does a veteran having a lawyer prevent the Board from sending a remand down to the AMC (or the VARO, for that matter) for further development of a Court-remanded appeal? If further development is required, it's my understanding that the Board will not do it. That task is normally delegated to the AMC or the VARO, and that's where these appeals languish for years without a writ petition. I'm all for attorney representation by the way, but in this case, I don't see how having an attorney "crack the whip" as you put it can force the Board to do anything else when additional development is required.

How would an attorney go about "cracking the whip," do you know? I'd love to know that!

Edited October 4, 2009 by vaf

[dav_marine72]

Vaf,

I'll get back to you on that one LOL. Maybe I'm being fed a bunch of crap. Would not be the first time. This is what my lawyer said should happen next. She and the VA counsel are developing a joint motion for reconsideration (JMR) based on them agreeing my 4 issues should be remanded. After the court okay's the JMR it will go back to the BVA. We will have a choice whether to have the BVA or RO make a decision. If we choose the BVA (which we will) they will give us 90 days to send any new evidence. After that they make a decision and we appeal again if necessary. Now I assume what your saying is if the BVAs decision is that further development of the claim is needed it's either going to the VARO or AMC?

Either way I'd rather have an attorney. When my case was at the BVA they overlooked a ton of evidence. It wasn't until I got my decision a year and a half later that I found out a ton of evidence wasn't considered. This happened even though I was faxing new evidence down the whole time and a woman at the BVA customer service line is telling me they received my faxes. I felt like I had no control and could not interface with anyone at the BVA who actually was working on my case. I have to assume (here I go assuming again LOL) that a lawyer must be able to get a higher level of access than we can at the BVA and or AMC? Maybe I shouldn't have used the words cracking the whip but what I meant was that the lawyer would have the legal access I don't. Make sense?

[dav_marine72]

Okay VAF I did some reading in the Veterans Benefit Manual. It seems I am in a different position than the Veteran who posed here. I never received a remand from the BVA. My remand were from the U.S. court. So my thoughts were coming from there back to the BVA. Let's just hope the BVA does not remand my claims for some reason when they get them back.