Imagine waiting around for several years (actually more because it’s Oakland) and then getting the call from the BVA. Of course, all this time you were waiting for the call to attend your requested Board Hearing, not the the decision call. So it’s off to Merry Olde Oakland for a two year delay to get the hearing. I think we can safely say this wasn’t an oversight on the RO’s part. This, and similar shenanigans like shipping your claim off without the SSD documents, occur about every 3 minutes nationwide. Poor training after what they spend to produce a vA claims rater? You be the judge.

This is where you, as the driver of your claim, can save time and win earlier-usually locally. So much time is spent playing Badminton with the claims between DC and the RO (God forbid the black hole of the AMC) that 10 years can be lightspeed a la hyperdrive motivator. DAV was driving this one. With access to his claims file at their fingertips, do you think anyone could be bothered to walk across the hall and say “Yoo-hooo? Say, can I review Johnny Vet’s records for completeness before you certify that and pack the Form 8 in on top? It’ll only take a minute.” This happens far more frequently than Vets imagine. When it does, the VSO jerk will blow bubbles and say. “Yessiree, Bob. Boy did we pull your bacon outta the fire. Our DAV rep in DC spotted that they screwed you out of your hearing so we demanded a remand. Our guy knows the judge pretty good so he let us bring it back here. That’s why you hired us, dude. We’re on it.”