Jim,
Last year, I finally had a video hearing with a Judge in Washington,D.C. As an outcome, my claim had been remanded back to the Houston office where I received a c&p exam for back,hip,and feet ailments secondary to right knee and right ankle disabilities. This case started in 2007 and has finally reached this point because of their refusal to acknowledge secondary problems that I have now incurred. All this info was gathered and sent to the rating board that I thought would make a decision. I'm not sure how the process works or what I should expect at this point, and was hoping you can give some insight into what is now transpiring.
Reply:
The process is always confusing and it doesn't work well.
You filed a claim for a disability benefit. It was (or part of it was) denied and you appealed to the Board of Veterans Appeals. The BVA remanded (sent the case back to) your claim to your Regional Office with an order that the RO do some more development work on it.
Once the RO does their job, your case file gets back in the ever increasing line of backlogged cases awaiting decisions. Your C & P exams are completed as ordered by the BVA. Now your folder is in a sort of limbo. There are estimates that over one million claims are backlogged at VA today. The VA receives more claims each day than it processes to completion. You can see where this is going...your claim will be in line for a long time.
I advise veterans today that even a well grounded and properly prepared claim may take 12 to 24 months to adjudicate. Once that's done and the veteran receives a decision letter, there is a 70% probability that the decision will be wrong and require an appeal.
Depending on the complexity of the appeal, I usually will advise the veteran to review the case with an attorney who is accredited by VA to do veterans law cases. Although the VA and BVA appeals processes are said to be administrative and non-adversarial, veterans who have legal counsel are more likely to win their case.
Your case may take 2 years from the date of the BVA remand before you have a decision. If it isn't what you believe you deserve, I urge you to seek out an attorney to help with any further work.