Va Traditional Appeals More Through Than a Dro Review
Afterwards getting a VA Ratings Decision that you would like to appeal, should you seek review of your denied VA Claim past a DRO?
Bottom Line Upward Front: I cannot think of a scenario where y'all would not request the DRO Review.
Earlier I tell yous why, let me practise a quick "primer" on the DRO process.
DRO Review Process.
Later on the VA Regional Part denies your claim, in whole or in part, you lot must appeal the VA Ratings decision if you lot wish to challenge that result.
To begin the appeal process, you file a written find of disagreement (NOD) with the VA Regional Office (VARO) that issued the disputed determination.
The VA then sends you an entreatment election form asking you to choose between a traditional appellate-review or a review by a decision review officer (DRO).
You have 60 days to respond to the entreatment election course. See 38 C.F.R. § 3.2600 (2007).
DROs are authorized to grant contested benefits based on the same evidence utilized by the initial rating board.
DROs review the prove "de novo" – essentially, with fresh optics and without deference to the initial Ratings Decision
The DRO is a valuable additional step in the process.
With rare exception (there are 1 or 2 DROs that are bad apples) I can't think of a reason Non to request a DRO review of the VARO'southward Initial Rating Decision.
DROs are senior representatives of the VA with considerable experience in handling Veterans' claims.
The DRO will review the case without deference to the VAs initial decision.
The DRO process is ofttimes successful and is more often than not much faster than going directly to the BVA. If y'all do not receive a improve decision from the DRO, you tin can notwithstanding appeal to the BVA.
Example of how a DRO Conference led to a favorable outcome.
In a recent merits we handled for a Vietnam veteran with Post Traumatic Stress (aka, PTSD), the VARO initially denied the Veteran's claim, finding that there was no testify of a current diagnosis.
This determination flew in the face of the testify of tape, wherein the VA had really diagnosed the Veteran with PTSD (and other mental health weather) equally a direct result of his military service.
Nosotros sought review past a DRO; within a few weeks, the Veteran was invited to the closest VA Medical Center for an evaluation for the purposes of generating an harm rating for PTSD.
Inside a few months of requesting the DRO, the Veteran was service-connected for PTSD.
Within xxx (thirty) days of that conclusion, the Veteran received a substantial payment of past-due benefits from the VA, and will go along to receive benefits into the future.
Had the Veteran not requested a DRO, I suspect it could have taken 1-2 years – at to the lowest degree – earlier we got a chance to persuade the BVA Hearing Official of our version of the facts.
Fifty-fifty if successful at the BVA, it is likely that we would take merely been able to get the BVA Hearing Official to remand the Veteran's claim back to the VA for a mental health impairment evaluation and farther evolution of the tape.
I Think the VA Got it Right with the DRO Conference.
While not a guarantee that you lot will get the benefits y'all are seeking, the DRO procedure seems to work for merely about anyone.
It helps Veterans become the benefits they are entitled to earlier than they would have past going through the traditional appeal process.
It helps the VA reduce its backlog of claims. Surviving issues that demand to be appealed to the BVA (computation of effective dates, disagreements over the percentage of damage rating, etc.) are narrowed for review by the BVA Hearing Official, and are more clean in their presentation to the BVA.
Despite these advantages, all also many Veterans don't yet know that the DRO process is a very adept option to pursue in nearly every blazon of claim.
Maybe the VA could explain the procedure meliorate to Veterans.
Perhaps Veterans are tired of going through withal one more phase of review of their claim and are "once-bitten-twice-shy" virtually the VA's claims of a more than efficient process for helping the Veteran.
With the likelihood that you will wait many months or years before you can argue your position on a denied claim before a BVA Hearing Official, it makes sense to ask that a more senior representative review your merits.
Using the comment department beneath, what was your experience – good or bad – with the DRO process?
Source: https://www.veteranslawblog.org/dro-review/