VA Appeals: AMA vs. Legacy
By Douglas I. Friedman of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.
Thursday, December 19, 2019
This year, the VA started a new process for appealing claims, called the Appeals Modernization Act (AMA). We do not know how long it will take to process claims under the new system. We also have an old process for claims, called the Legacy system, that still has a lot of claims pending. We've been told by the VA that they're going to process the Legacy claims on hearings first and then process the new claims. But, we're seeing that some claims are being processed under both systems. So, when a veteran asks us how long it will take to get a claim processed under one system versus the other, it's really hard to give a definite answer. For instance, we know that under the Legacy system it was taking about two years to get a Decision Review Officer hearing. Under the AMA, we don't know how long it's going to take to get a hearing or a higher level review or even a supplemental claim review.
We are all in a learning process right now. Our colleagues across the country are in the same position that we are. The only process that we really know about right now is the Legacy process. For that reason, we have a tendency to keep our clients in the Legacy process because we know how that works. We also think the Legacy process has some aspects which give us more information and a better insight into what a decision is going to entail and when it's going to be made.
Post navigation
The Role of the Vocational Expert and a Railroad Retirement Board Hearing.