100 OLD LEGACY SYSTEM

[Jpaula]

How much true is there on what i was told, that after a denial on an appeal on the old Legacy System are mandated by Congress to be reviewed by a judge within 3o days.

[broncovet]

Brokensoldier has pointed out that claims are often "very slow" these days, in no small part because NPR has ground virtually to a halt because of covid.  Its still taking a very long time to get your records from NPR. 

If you are in appeals, then they should already have your records.   But not always.  So many records have been lost, there is a special regulation just for "(service) records that have been lost, then found".  38CFR 3.156 C. 

The VA has fed Congress the cool aid that "all claims are different" so the VA has an unlimited amount of time to process your claim, and this includes appeals.  My multiple appeals took a total of 17 years to finally get resolved.  

(With social security, if you file, there needs to be a compelling reason for a decision to take over 60 days).  In other words, if you work for social security, your supervisor is gonna ask you why a decision was not done in the 60 days.  There is great pressure on Social Security to complete them in 60 days.  Of course, some take longer than that, but you better have a great reason.  

The answer to your question is an empatic, "NO".  However, this said, there are not very many legacy claims left.  And, appeals are supposed to be done "in docket number order".  This means that legacy claims were mostly filed "BEFORE" Feb. 2019.   (In Feb. 19, all new claims were switched automatically, to AMA.).   Therefore, if you have an older appeal, it should have an older docekt number, and "should" normally be completed before newer docket numbers coming in.  Exception:  If you have been given an "advance on the docket" due to hardship, over age 75, terminally ill, etc. Those will be completed "in front of you" as they have been "advanced on the docket".  

Edited August 25, 2021 by broncovet