Nod Did Not Meet Legal Requirements

BasehorVet · July 21, 2011

Wow, I cannot believe what is happening with my claim, I have a copy of a Report of General Information that a VA VARO employee mailed to me that states i disagreed with the rating decision of my back condition and that I request a decision review officer DRO to review the decision and consider all evidence submitted since the original decision (1985). This is stamped received July 6 2011by the VARO mailroom. It also states that I am submitting additional information regarding my notice of disagreement in the near future, it also requests expeditious processing due to financial hardship. It is signed and initialed by the employee.

To cover my own a** I sent in a certified letter to the VARO which was signed for by a VA employee as received on July 11 2011, my appeal period was set to close on July 12 2011. This NOD was submitted on a VA statement in support of claim VA 21-4138. The appeal information disappeared on ebenefits today and I called IRIS they said a letter is coming my way which states my NOD did not fullfil the legal requirements for a NOD and closed it. This decision was based on the information that the VA employee had submitted on my claim July 6 2011, over the phone (he sent me a copy of it). The IRIS person said their was no record of the NOD letter that I sent in and that was certified delivery on July 11 2011.

All this is after I requested a reconsideration of my denial from the July 2009 claim in Oct 2010. They sent me a letter that stated if my intention was to appeal the denial of the 2010 claim that I needed to do so within one year, this gave me 8 days to write a NOD and send it to them.

I guess I will know more when the letter arrives tomorrow but I wonder how the little green certified card will handled. Is this proof that my NOD should be reopened or can they deny, I wrote on the card NOD Notice of Disagreement.