A Key Question You Must Ask Your VA Higher-Level Reviewer

[johnbgately]

In several of my VA Higher-level Review conferences, I have found that the Higher-level Reviewer ("HLR") was missing some of the evidence crucial to our case or that the copies they had were illegible. With this in mind, I highly recommend that you first make sure at the beginning of the conference that your HLR has copies of all the documents you will rely on to make your points. In addition, you also need to ensure that the HLR understands the issues in your case, as I have had instances recently in which the system did not allow the HLR to see what our contentions were on appeal. Thus, do not assume that the HLR has all of your evidence or that they understand your contentions on appeal- if you review these points with them at the start of the conference, it will make the HLR's job much easier and increase your odds of winning.

 

[chaplaincharlie]

Wow, that is broken.

 

[johnbgately]

Wow, that is broken.

Agreed- but making the HLR reviewer's job easier typically results in faster decisions and causes them to view your petition in a much more favorable light. After all, who could be offended or turned off by a veteran and their attorney taking the time to ensure that all participants in the conference are on the same page? Thus, I would always use the first 5 minutes of the conference to ensure that the HLR Reviewer has clear, legible copies of your key pieces of evidence and understands your arguments before discussing why you should be granted relief. When I did this last week, the HLR reviewer could not see our actual contentions on appeal on her system and had to recreate them with me online. However, by making it easy for her, we received a written decision within 24 hours granting our appeal.

 

[RetiredAtty]

Thanks for this, Jack. For BVA appeals, do you include as attachments or as an appendix all the documents upon which the appeal relies or do you cite to a version of the C-File? If a DRO doesn't necessarily have documents, can one be assured the BVA veteran law judge will?

 

[chaplaincharlie]

Agreed- but making the HLR reviewer's job easier typically results in faster decisions and causes them to view your petition in a much more favorable light. After all, who could be offended or turned off by a veteran and their attorney taking the time to ensure that all participants in the conference are on the same page? Thus, I would always use the first 5 minutes of the conference to ensure that the HLR Reviewer has clear, legible copies of your key pieces of evidence and understands your arguments before discussing why you should be granted relief. When I did this last week, the HLR reviewer could not see our actual contentions on appeal on her system and had to recreate them with me online. However, by making it easy for her, we received a written decision within 24 hours granting our appeal.

I successfully self advocated a HLR years ago, but I had no idea that the decision authority had these LIMFACS. I was lucky, I guess.

 

[johnbgately]

Thanks for this, Jack. For BVA appeals, do you include as attachments or as an appendix all the documents upon which the appeal relies or do you cite to a version of the C-File? If a DRO doesn't necessarily have documents, can one be assured the BVA veteran law judge will?

Hi Scott! I tend to submit my evidence as attachments, with the appeal brief/overview referring to where these items may be found in the "C" file.