BVA Docket System

[KC3]

Background: I have had my claim with a docket number for approximately 40 months now for a hearing with a VLJ. The timeline was supposed to have been 365 days with the new AMA. I recently conducted miscellaneous checks for specific cases on the BVA search. There are many cases similar to mine with docket numbers much newer than mine getting their hearings with a VLJ. Many are from 2021 where I have been waiting since 2019. None of these are under the emergency's listed at the BVA website for advancing more quickly. 

Question(s): Does the BVA not go in order? Is this something I need to follow up on with WH hotline or Peggy or just wait out?

Thanks for reading.  

[jamescripps2]

NEVER EVER ASK FOR A HEARING!!! All you can do at a hearing is to reenerate the evidence already of record. True, you are allowed to submit new and revelent evidence at a hearing to the hearing officer, but, you could submit that new evidence without a hearing. When you ask for a hearing you are asking for three years to be tacked onto your appeal. Novice VSOs will ask for a hearing.

[broncovet]

I mostly agree with JamesCripps.  Hearings vastly increase the time it takes to get through the BVA.  

I would not, however, use the term "NEVER" (ask for a hearing).  

You have to weigh the benefits, and the cost.  The "cost" for a hearing is a long delay, and, if its a hearing in person, the costs to get there.  

The only real benefit of a hearing is to review the file and make sure its complete, and, provide a copy of anything important that is missing.  

The board is gonna weigh the stuff based on evidence, not on how you dress, your hair color, or whether or not you use a pleasant deodorant.  And, the evidence needs to be documented.  

There is a real chance you say stuff at a hearing that could be used against you.  

If your attorney requests a hearing, (the do, sometimes) then he is not emotionally invested like you are, so he can use care not to sabatoge your claim.  

But if YOU make a statment that conflicts or contradicts the record, your testimony may be deemed "not credible".  

A practical example of this is they ask you "when" something happened.  Many of us dont remember "the date" it happened.  You know, "When did you first notice those symptoms?"

(Gee, IDK, 4 years ago?  or was it 5 years ago?  Maybe it was seven?). Its hard for many of us to remember dates.  So, the judge checks the record, where you told the doc 4 years ago, you noticed it after Christmas, in 2014.  Do you remember every word you spoke in 2014?  Heck I cant remember every word of my conversation with my wife this morning...let alone what happened in 2014. 

You didnt "change your story"..you were not lying...but you just dont remember as much as you did 10 years ago.  Its called your aging brain.  

But, the VA will use that against you, because they can.