Certification Of Appeals In Ebenefits

[add55p]

Hello All

I am trying to get an answer to this specific question.

If Ebenefits states that the claim has been "Certified to BVA", has the claim ben assigned a docket number at this point?

Thank you

Add

[Philip Rogers]

I'm not sure but the BVA will send you a letter confirming your claim and advising you of the docket number.

pr

[FormerMember]

When a claim is certified to the BVA, that means all adjudicative actions are complete and the file has a signed Form 8 showing certification. It doesn't mean it has been transmitted to the BVA yet, though. That can be another one to three months- sometimes six. BVA is running out of places to put them. As Phil said, you will know when it gets there as the BVA will tell you it has been docketed. Then you can expect another year plus wait for adjudication. Hurry up and wait. Slightly faster than a speeding blade of grass coming up.

a

[carlie]

Just as a follow up on pr's and aknod's replies -

to give you additional information.

Even once your claim finally gets a docket number - this does not

provide you with a way to track it at BVA.

[FormerMember]

As an adjunct to that, if you have an attorney s/he can track it like an EKG. This is especially important if they send out for IME with podiatrist opining as a orthopaedic surgeon. In cases like that, you have sixty days to refute/rebut the podiatrist or it stands under the Presumption of Correctness. Unless proven otherwise, all VA medical opinions are presumed correct. Game Set Match. Allowing your appeal to ride pro se is a crap shoot unless you are bulletproof.

Clear Prop.

[Vync]

That is really good info. It is great to know that you can actually try to stay ahead of the BVA, sort of.

But what about Veterans who go to the BVA with their regular VSO (i.e. DAV, VFW, state rep)? Would they also be able to get the pulse on it just like the attorney? I don't have anything in the mix, but when I went to the BVA in the 1990's, I had a state rep. I had no idea that there were other organizations that had any influence. This was before the Internet made things better. I was told that I would just receive letters in the mail. The first one said it was received. The next one said they are still backlogged. The next one offered me the opportunity to go before the travelling board to speed things up. I accepted, went before the travelling board, and was totally unprepared. I got new C&P's and won half my claims. Had I known then what I know now, I would have won all of them. Thank goodness for this site! I would hate for anyone else to have to deal with the VA without knowing anything.

[FormerMember]

In DC, when repped by a VSO, your claim appeal is handled by teams composed of senior VSO officers from all the Big Six (not just your particular VSO) "schooled" in this art. I have yet to hear of a VSO team asking for the bona fides of a IME or the credentials of a VA doctor opining on the claim. Doesn't happen. That's why adept attorneys are so valuable to this process. They have a hands on capability that VSOs only dream of. The difference is that thing after their names-you know- Juris Doctor.

Cleared in Hot.

[carlie]

My prior reply was in relationship to having a docket number and not being able to

track your appeal through ebenefits.