Hi, I'm Joe Scott, a VA accredited attorney with Woods
and Woods, a law firm that handles VA Disability Claims
for Veterans and their eligible survivors and today, I'm going
to explain what steps your claim goes through with the
process for decision at the regional office level and how
you can check the status of your claim. So, if you want to
check your claim status yourself, there are several
ways to do it. Uh you can check it online at the VA. gov
website. Uh please make sure that it does have a dot gov on
the website. If you do choose check online. You can typically
navigate to the MyVA dashboard and around the top right
corner, there should be an arrow that you can select that
says track claims and then from there, that will go into the
various sets of status. You can also see if there are any open
claims at that time or if they're under appellate status
which means they've been appealed for additional review
and decisions and you can also look it up on the E benefits
account which is another way to check your your status and
benefits online Um additionally, you can call the
VA number. That number is 1-800-827-1000. Um you can
finally go physically to a VA regional office and speak with
someone there if you would like to as well. So, the amount of
time it takes to make a decision is dependent upon how
many steps VA has to work through in order to make a
decision and if they believe additional steps are necessary.
So, the first step is typically noted as claim received which
frankly is what it sounds like. It shows that VA has received a
claim which is simple but it's beneficial to know in case you
have submitted a claim and there is no acknowledgement of
receipt that may indicate VA has made in error for example and
not process in your case. Next would come the initial review
stage which is typically where the rater or what's called the
Veteran Service Representative at VA will acknowledge the
receipt of the claim and review the surface of the claim,
review type of form it's submitted on to see if they need
clarification as to what you're claiming specifically or if
they can move forward in the process the third step if
necessary is the gathering of evidence phase which is where
VA determines more information is needed to make a decision,
they will typically either contact you or if you've
requested that VA gathers evidence pursuing to what's
called their duty to assist. VA will gather evidence but not in
every situation. So, it's important to remember that if
there's outstanding evidence, it may be on the claimant or
the representative to gather it sometimes. So, the next step is
review and decision part. Sometimes, I just addressed the
previous one of gathering evidence but sometimes VA will
sort of lump those collectively together. That's really the
meat or the crux of where the decision comes from, seeing
what the claim is saying, seeing what the evidence
supports, seeing if VA has additional processes they need
to get to make an informed decision. Preparation of
notification. So, VA believes they had everything that was
required. They'll prepare the actual form. They'll explain
what's on the form. They should explain if it's not granted in
full or denied outright. What you can do in order to appeal
it successfully, what evidence is favorable to you, and then
they'll gather all that information to wait to be
officially sent to the individual. And then finally, a
complete status, that means that VA has rendered a
decision, and it should be on its way to the individual and
their representative if they have one, to receive it, to
review it, and decide what to do from there. In my
experience, VA doesn't always use exact language all the time
with the standard claims process, even though the
process more or less runs in a standardized manner different
individuals may call the same thing by a different name and
if you talk to someone by calling VA for example they may
explain it in a certain manner if you talk to another
individual they may explain it in a separate manner but for
broadstrokes purposes those are the core elements that we've
discussed So the VA publishes the average amount of time it
takes to render a decision so far in 2023 at the time we're
recording this. It's between three to four months during the
height of the pandemic. It was covering around five months I
believe. So it is an average. Some claims are decided faster.
Some are decided slower based upon several factors that we
can influence not necessarily control but those are the
average times. So it is possible that VA will move
faster or move on to a different or separate step
sooner than you might anticipate that can happen if
you've submitted all necessary evidence to make the decision
that can happen if VA was just receiving prompt receipt of the
evidence that they requested so it went frankly faster than you
would expect it to. It can also get a faster decision if you
qualify for what the VA says is priority processing. So some
claims like terminal illness, extreme financial hardship,
homelessness. Claims of that nature are prioritized given
their their inherent circumstances. Those decisions
can render faster than a standard claim that might need
additional development to include a medical examination
if necessary to make a decision. To help the process
go faster, as simple as it sounds, making sure that all
forms are filled out correctly. If possible, I typically see
that VA can process things a little bit cleaner if there's
mostly electronically printed information as opposed to
handwriting that may reduce the delay if if the individual
can't read it. Um that will certainly slow down the status
of a filing out the forms correctly as I've said
following the directions within the VA form even if you believe
the step is unnecessary or unneeded sometimes as painful
as it is we have to follow that procedure just to get a
decision and we can then address the merits of that
decision including any new and relevant evidence if you're
filing what's called the supplemental claim which is
mainly what I'm discussing here making sure that it meets the
standard VA has to see to make that supplemental claim
appealable used as an appealable decision that would
increase the speed of your claim just by making the
process goes as smooth as it as it can. If VA finds that you
need to attend a medical examination, again, as
unfortunate as that may be, attending the exam is
necessary. VA will typically at the minimum delay decision that
had a medical exam schedule that was not attended. Making
sure that you thoroughly explain your medical situation,
you represent can help explain what that means precisely but
to the examiner himself or herself can really help clarify
what's that issue and what the VA needs to decide.
Hiring an attorney can be advantageous to getting a claim
decided faster especially if the attorney is aware of how to
expedite a claim if it's eligible for what's called
priority processing. Um making sure that all necessary
evidence to the greatest extent possible is there to render the
correct decision the first time as opposed to just a generic or
or less than substantive appeal that may need additional
development later. An attorney would know how to get the most
substance out of that claim to a Increase the chances of it
being decided properly and as fast as is possible with the VA
system. So you can learn more about the VA disability
process, what benefits and appeals you may be entitled to
by following the links in the description to this video and
on our YouTube channel as well. Uh you can leave your questions
and comments in the section below. Um we've most often
dealt with what's called TDIU and DIC cases and we have
videos about that if you're more interested in learning
about them but if you're ready to contact an attorney about
this please feel free to contact us at Woods and Woods
for your consultation and we'd be happy to speak with you.