Hi, I'm Travis Studdard, a veteran disability attorney with Perkins Law Firm.
Today I want to talk to you about a question that many veterans have at some point in their
appeals process.
What is a remand?
If you're like a lot of veterans you received a ratings decision from the VA and you disagree
with it so you appeal that and eventually get to the Board of Veterans Appeals, also
known as the BVA.
Many veterans are happy to be done with their local-regional office and are sure that the
BVA will give them the decision that they deserve.
The process of getting a BVA decision can be very long in coming.
It could be months or even years, usually it is years, after you apply for benefits.
The day finally comes when they get that decision in the mail and a lot of veterans are disappointed
at that point.
The decision from the BVA is not what they were expecting.
Rather than a clear statement from the appellate judges of you win your claim or you lose your
claim it's really something in between.
It's what they call a "remand."
A remand is not a final decision by the Board of Veterans Appeals, which many veterans are
surprised to learn that a remand cannot be appealed to a higher court, the Court of Appeals
for Veterans Claims.
If you can't appeal a remand, I want to talk to you about what you can do and what it actually
means and what to expect.
A remand from BVA is essentially a decision sending the claim back to the local-regional
office.
Usually with some instructions on what the regional office needs to do to decide the
claim correctly.
Let me give you an example.
Let's say you file a claim for PTSD with your regional office and you get a decision denying
that claim for lack of a diagnosis, so you file your notice of disagreement and your
Form 9 and you go on, you're on your way to the BVA.
Somewhere in that process you actually get the diagnosis of PTSD.
If that's all you do, you're not going to win your claim most likely.
The BVA will consider that diagnosis but will then issue a remand sending the claim back
to the regional office with some instructions on how to decide the other parts of the claim
that are necessary for a successful PTSD claim.
That will include some instructions which may call for a new exam by another C&P examiner
or to look for some other key piece of missing evidence, such as an in-service stressor.
When it goes back to the regional office, you're almost starting all over again.
The regional office will go through what the BVA told them to do, but they may only do
the bare necessities of that.
Say, "Get the C&P exam," and then deny your claim again.
At that point you're appealing once again to the BVA and it's deja vu again at that
point.
It's important to understand that with the remand it may go on for years and years and
you may not get the result that you were actually wanting.
This can cause additional delay and frustration to you, and that's a reason why at that point
it may be a good idea to consult with a veterans disability attorney who can avoid that remand
yo-yo of you bouncing up and down through the VA process between the regional office
and the BVA.
Look for some other videos from me where I'll get into more details of how you can actual
avoid a remand and get that successful win that you were looking for from the BVA.
If you like this video I would ask you to give it a thumbs up on YouTube, and look for
more videos and you can do that by subscribing to our page on YouTube at Perkins Law Firm.
If you search for that and find more articles and videos that may be of help on our website,
WinYourVetClaim.com.
Also, if you need a consultation with us you can do that on our website or you can give
us a call at 770-214-8885.
Thank you.