hi everyone thank you so much for tuning in today to cck live under five i'm maura black
i'm a managing attorney here at cck and today we're discussing ways to expedite your claims and
to fast track your case at the va i know that this is important information for many of you out there
who have been subject to va's delays so please pay attention and we hope this information is helpful
there's multiple situations in which you can apply for expeditious treatment of your claims
or appeals but they're very specific so there's a need to fall into one of the following categories
that we're going to discuss in order to have your case expedited at the va first of all veterans
should know that if you meet one of the following criteria that i'm going to touch on you'll need
to submit a priority processing request via va form 20-10-207 so that's an important thing to
note that there is a form associated with asking for expeditious treatment of your claims that are
pending before the va the first primary reason that would entitle you to expeditious treatment
is financial hardship and homelessness so you can request to expedite a va disability claim
if you are experiencing extreme financial hardship and useful evidence to prove that
you are in this type of situation would include eviction notices or overdue bill notices and if
a person is homeless va can expedite their claim for benefits and afford them priority processing
again you will just want to be submitting any documentation that you can showing that status
the second way to have your case expedited is through advanced age important to note that the va
regional offices and the board of veterans appeals use different ages to show that you meet this
criteria the regional office level will expedite your case if you are 85 years of age or older but
at the board of veterans appeals you're entitled to advancement on the board's dockets if you're
75 years of age or older so 85 for the regional offices and 75 for the board of veterans appeals
a third way to have your case expedited is if you're experiencing terminal illness
again you will need to submit evidence of this status preferably medical evidence showing that
you do have a terminal illness and that your condition is terminal but va is instructed to
prioritize claims if those are your circumstances a fourth way to have your case expedited is if you
have a diagnosis of als or lou gehrig's disease you will have to submit a diagnosis that's
definitely a theme va is going to be looking for evidence speaking to all of these points
but if you do have this diagnosis and can submit documentation of it that is a way that va will
be responsive and expedite your case and handle your claims more quickly a fifth way to have your
cases expedited your claims and appeals decided more quickly is if you were very seriously ill
or injured during military operations this one's a little bit confusing because
most disabled veterans have a very serious illness or disability and have an injury in service but
it doesn't just require that you were injured in service and that you now have a disability
it has to be a very serious injury or an illness during military operations
that was likely to result in a military discharge so service personnel records are great evidence
that you can submit to show that you experience something like this and additionally a medical
discharge showing that you experience something severe in service that warranted discharge is
helpful to have your cases expedited with this parameter a couple more um a sixth way to have
your claims and appeals fast-tracked is if you're a former prisoner of war pow
those persons are eligible to have their claims expedited as long as they can submit a copy of
military personnel records showing their former pow status and finally medal of honor or purple
heart award recipients can apply to have their claims expedited by submitting a copy of their
military personnel records such as a dd214 or any other information indicating that the
veteran had received that award so that's about seven ways to have your case advanced
they are very specific like i said before and submitting evidence showing all of these things
is important we do have this information at our blog cck.law.com so if you want to review it
please feel free to go ahead and thank you so much for tuning in today we hope you have a great day
you