Had a Hearing

[AngryA]

Hello,  back in November I had an appeal hearing, then on May 6 I was notified regarding  “Status: The Board made a decision on your appeal” and that an increase in rating was granted regarding one condition and few others were now service connected.

It is my understanding that now VARO works on establishing ratings and dates for said conditions…my question is whether there is an approximate timeframe that I could expect? Is it 4-5 mos?

Thanks!

[shrekthetank1]

So it has to come back to your RO.  Once it is back there I think it depends on how many signatures it needs.  My last one took 6 months.  I have also heard of them doing them in like a month.  I think it depends on the dollar amount.  Mine was pretty big so it took a while.  Smaller ones seem to go faster.  But this is just from gather what has happened to me and what others have said. 

[AngryA]

3 hours ago, shrekthetank1 said:

So it has to come back to your RO.  Once it is back there I think it depends on how many signatures it needs.  My last one took 6 months.  I have also heard of them doing them in like a month.  I think it depends on the dollar amount.  Mine was pretty big so it took a while.  Smaller ones seem to go faster.  But this is just from gather what has happened to me and what others have said. 

It's been on appeal since 2017, attempting to go from 90% to 100%.

Did you have a lot of separate matters to address? Mine: 3 conditions that were granted service connection and one that went from 20% to 30%, which I think will require work on establishment of effective date.

 

Edited May 30 by AngryA (see edit history)

[shrekthetank1]

I had 3 also.  And I was from 2014.

I am back at the CAVC again as the lawyer believes they keep messing up.

I had to fight my effective date and still am, so that is fun.  That did get me my 100% P&T.

Keep fighting and make sure you have a good VSO who has your back.  The VFW took me from 30% to 100% P&T and this could get me SMC-S and a good back pay.  

I will say I am much more chill now about it.  Patience was hard to learn.

[pacmanx1]

15 hours ago, shrekthetank1 said:

I had to fight my effective date and still am, so that is fun.  That did get me my 100% P&T.

Keep fighting and make sure you have a good VSO who has your back.  The VFW took me from 30% to 100% P&T and this could get me SMC-S and a good back pay.  

I will say I am much more chill now about it.  Patience was hard to learn.

Make sure you get your correct effective date for your SMC-S. I have been trying to pass around what I found on my own claim of trying to get the best effective date for SMC-S, my claim is also still pending.  Hope you found Buie V. Shinseki. This should add up to a nice retro pay. This is a precedential decision that can be cited. 

James E. Buie v. Eric K. Shinseki – CourtListener.com

Basically, it states:" The Court has held that the order in which disabilities are service connected is not relevant to VA's determination of a claimant's eligibility for special monthly compensation under 38 U.S.C. section 1114(s).  Whenever a veteran has a total disability rating, schedular or extra-schedular, based on multiple disabilities and the veteran is subsequently awarded service connection for any additional disability or disabilities, VA's duty to maximize benefits requires VA to assess all of the claimant's disabilities without regard to the order in which they were service connected to determine whether any combination of the disabilities establishes entitlement to special monthly compensation under section 1114(s).  If, after such an assessment, VA determines that the claimant is entitled to special monthly compensation, the effective date of the award of special monthly compensation will be the effective date assigned for the award of benefits for the final disability that forms the relevant combination of disabilities.  Buie v. Shinseki, 24 Vet. App. 242, 250-51 (2010), as amended (Apr. 21, 2011)".

[shrekthetank1]

thank you!  I will follow up on this!

[AngryA]

Checking back in, wanted to clarify this:

The appeal contains 3 parts--several conditions granted on 5/6, several remanded and one denied.

My question is this--the newly granted conditions ought to increase my rating to 100%, independent of whichever way the remanded ones go--would I have to wait to see what they do with the remanded ones prior to seeing any change in my overall ratings due to granted conditions, or is that separate and it doesn't matter what they do with the remanded stuff?

Im guessing if I have to wait for remanded conditions, while the granted ones are on hold, then It might be a very, very long time.

Thanks in advance.

[broncovet]

No.   The va has a fast letter addressing "partial grants" which they are supposed to pay you for, even if other issues are denied/remanded.  All this said, VA does not alway follow their own rules.  If VA precisely followed the rules to the letter, then the Board of Veterans appeals and cavc would have to be shut down, as they would not be needed.  There is little chance of that happening any time soon.  

As far as an estimated date for a bva implementation, I have seen them in a month, or rarely less, and they can be a year or more, or even never.  An average guess would be 2 to 6 months after receipt of the board decision.  

[AngryA]

8 hours ago, broncovet said:

No.   The va has a fast letter addressing "partial grants" which they are supposed to pay you for, even if other issues are denied/remanded.  All this said, VA does not alway follow their own rules.  If VA precisely followed the rules to the letter, then the Board of Veterans appeals and cavc would have to be shut down, as they would not be needed.  There is little chance of that happening any time soon.  

As far as an estimated date for a bva implementation, I have seen them in a month, or rarely less, and they can be a year or more, or even never.  An average guess would be 2 to 6 months after receipt of the board decision.  

Thank you for that info.

Not sure if it's relevant at all, or simple coincidence, but I did receive a form from the VA few weeks back, asking to verify the number of dependents. I was hoping it was a precursor to backpay.

[broncovet]

It could well be relevant, but if I could accurately predict "what va will do" in xzy circumstance, then I would be wasting my predictive skills, and would do better buying lottery tickets with  that that much prophetic skill.  VA is made up of around 600,000 employees, I think, and pretty much all of these have different ideas on most things including how to process veterans claims.  The va is not a unified body, where every employee is a robot and does things exactly the same way.  

Instead, like us, they have good days, and bad days, and mostly the outcome of our claim, including process time, is often dependent upon "how veteran friendly" that employee is, and often, how good of a day they have had.  

Any one of maybe thousands of va employees may be working on your claim on any given day, and its often the "luck of the draw" on which employee you get.  

This is one reason "persistence" often pays off.  You just may get a veteran friendly employee, in a great mood willing to help the next time.  Or, you can get Mr. Grinch who just had a bowlful of nails this morning for breakfast.  You never know, but, by keep on trucking, you should eventually get your just compensation.  

Edited August 13 by broncovet (see edit history)