welcome to cck live under five i'm kayla ginafrio and today i'm going to be answering the question
what is a board of veterans appeals talking number for some general background the board of veterans
appeal also called the port or the bva is an entity that conducts hearings and decides claims
for veterans benefits once they've been appealed from the agency of original jurisdiction which is
usually the va regional office adjudicators at the board which are called veterans law
judges make a decision regarding the veteran's claim based on the evidence that's of record
the board's goal is to conduct a de novo review meaning a fresh look at the veteran's case without
necessarily giving deference to those previous rating decisions or decisions that have been made
so now getting into docket numbers before reviewing the veterans claim the board will
issue a docket number for that claim the docket number is essentially a number that's assigned
to the veteran's case based on the date has received their substantive appeal to the board
which would be a noticed disagreement under the ama system or a va form 9 substantive appeal
under the legacy system according to va a docket number reserves the veteran's place in line of
cases to be decided by the board as required by law the board must consider the appeals in the
order in which they're entered on the docket so basically the sooner you get your appeal in the
earlier the docket number will be and in theory the faster the claim will be decided by the board
um one thing to keep in mind is that there are different dockets within the
board um so if you have a legacy appeal there is a docket specifically for legacy appeals
if your appeal is under ama there's a specific docket for those ama appeals um and then within
the ama there are three separate dockets depending on which docket option you choose whether you
choose the direct docket the evidence docket or if you've requested a hearing before the board
and depending on which docket you choose you'll be assigned a different docket number and it may
vary in the length of time it takes the board to actually make a decision on your case so
just something to keep in mind that there are variations depending on which docket you're on
once you have been assigned a docket number you can submit a motion for advancement on
the docket or an aod if you're suffering from unusual hardship or other sufficient cause
and this is essentially just asking the board to expedite its review of their appeal of your appeal
or asking them to make your docket number a little bit sooner to get a quicker decision
aod's can be submitted under certain circumstances such as serious illness including copic 19
financial hardship such as bankruptcy foreclosure or homelessness
advanced age which before the board is 75 years or older please keep in mind this is
a different number than what va or what the regional offices use to consider advanced age
at the regional office that number is 85 years or older at the board at 75 years or older
if you have been affected by a natural disaster such as a hurricane a tornado or a flood or if
there's some sort of administrative error that results in significant delay in your
appeal being added to the board's docket for any motion for advancement on the docket to the
board you must also include the appropriate supporting evidence or documentation for
your reasoning for the advancement so for example if you're suffering from a serious
illness you will need some sort of a physician statement sort of speaking to the severity of your
illness whether it's terminal or not or if you're experiencing financial hardship um just some sort
of notice sort of showing evidence that you are actually under financial hardship such as late
late fees or late statements bankruptcy foreclosure notices evidence of eviction
anything of that nature um just something that would sort of substantiate that you are under
the hardship that um you're seeking advancement for um so i think that's a good place for us to
close out today thank you so much for tuning in more information can be found on our blog
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