If you get a bad decision from the VA on your disability claim, before you can do anything about it, the first thing you need to do is know whether your claim falls under the old legacy system or the new modernized review system. The modernized review system took effect after the passage of the Appeals Modernization Act. And it’s also referred to as the AMA. So the key words here are legacy and AMA? Eventually, all claims are going to fall under the AMA. It’s the new system, and where everything’s going. And in fact, the majority of the cases that I’m working on right now are in the AMA system.
The basic rule is that if the initial decision from the VA that you are trying to appeal was made on or after February 19th, 2019, then your claim falls under the AMA. I think that’s the case for a lot of veterans and that’s just going to increase as time goes on and eventually. But there are still a lot of legacy claims working their way through the pipeline.
So if you have an initial decision from the VA that was made before February 19th, 2019, you might fall under the AMA or you might not. First of all, we are two years out from that date. It’s February 2021. So if you got an original decision from the VA before February 19th, 2019, and you haven’t done anything with it up to now, you’ve got some other problems. You’ve probably lost your effective date and you’re most likely going to have to start over essentially under the AMA anyway.
But if your initial decision was before February 19, 2019, on a claim you’ve been continuously pursuing and fighting the VA on, since that time, and you’ve never missed any type of a deadline for an appeal or anything like that, then my gut is it’s probably still legacy system unless you specifically opted in to the AMA.
To know for sure, the things to look for are, whether the VA sent you a statement of the case or a supplemental statement of the case, which, the VA will send you in response to a notice of disagreement and any new evidence as developed in you. There’s a little more to it than that, but to my point, if you’re receiving those documents from the VA, that’s a clear sign you’re in the legacy system. Now, if you filed a supplemental claim and specifically opted in to the AMA, then you’re under the AMA.
So those are, those are the things you need to look for on those older claims. I know this can be confusing, but it’s important to take the time and actually look at the documents you’re getting from the VA and, and figure out where you fall. So that, again, you know what your options are.
And as always, if you want me to take a look at your claim, you can reach out to me through my website. I can’t promise I’ll help you, but I’m happy to take a look and see if I can.