How to Reopen a VA Claim with New and Relevant Evidence
CCK Law: Our Vital Role in Veterans Law
Veterans who file a VA disability compensation claim may receive a denial. In these situations, a veteran may file an appeal. However, what happens if the veteran misses their appeal deadline or goes through the entire appeal process unsuccessfully? While it may seem that this is the end of the road, some veterans may be able to “reopen” their claim if they have “new and relevant evidence” under the Appeals Modernization Act (AMA) system.
The VA claim and appeal process can be frustrating, but reopening a claim with VA allows certain veterans to have their claims re-examined without having to file a new claim from scratch. Yet VA does not allow all claims to be reopened. There are specific criteria veterans must meet.
In this article, CCK Law will discuss:
- The Appeals Modernization Act (AMA)
- When veterans can reopen a claim with VA
- New and relevant evidence
- How to reopen a claim
- And more
What Is the Appeals Modernization Act (AMA)?
On February 19, 2019, VA implemented the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act (AMA), replacing the Legacy appeals system. Veterans who receive a decision on an initial claim after this date are automatically placed within this system. Veterans who had pending decisions before the AMA system went into effect could opt for this system.
The AMA system has three review “lanes” that veterans can choose from when deciding to appeal an unfavorable decision:
- Higher-Level Review
- Supplemental Claim
- Notice of Disagreement
- Used to appeal directly to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, which offers three docket options:
- Direct Docket
- Evidence Docket
- Hearing Docket
- Used to appeal directly to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, which offers three docket options:
Before the AMA system, a veteran needed to have “new and material” evidence to reopen a claim. The AMA replaced this standard with “new and relevant” evidence in most cases. This new standard generally lowers the threshold that veterans need to meet when reopening a claim. We will explain this threshold later in this article.
When Can You Reopen a VA Claim?
As mentioned, VA will not reopen all claims. There are three specific conditions that veterans must meet before they can choose to reopen their claim.
First, a veteran must receive a denial of their initial claim, and that decision must be final. A decision is considered final when a veteran a) misses the deadline to appeal a decision within one year of the date on their decision notice, or b) exhausts the entire appeals process. This includes appeals exhausted through their VA Regional Office, the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA), and the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC).
Second, the claim itself must be eligible for VA to open it. Generally, the veteran’s claim must be one of the following types:
- Service-connected VA disability compensation
- Dependency indemnity compensation (DIC)
- Burial benefits
Third, the veteran must have “new and relevant evidence” that they can submit to VA for review.
What Is “New and Relevant Evidence”?
One of the conditions veterans must meet to reopen their claims is that they have new and relevant evidence. In short, this standard can be defined as follows:
- New Evidence: This is evidence that VA has never seen before. In other words, new evidence was not in the record at the time of the prior decision.
- Relevant Evidence: This is evidence that relates to the reason VA previously denied the claim. 38 C.F.R. § 3.2501(a) defines it as follows: “[It] is information that tends to prove or disprove a matter at issue in a claim. Relevant evidence includes evidence that raises a theory of entitlement that was not previously addressed.”
So, new and relevant evidence must fill a gap—either proving service connection, showing a diagnosis, or linking the condition to service.
Examples of new and relevant evidence may include:
- A buddy statement from a fellow service member
- Private medical records linking a veteran’s condition to their service
- New service records obtained from NPRC
- Photographs or letters from a veteran’s time in service
- A nexus opinion from a doctor with access to their service history
VA denies a claim for a knee injury because there is no record of the injury in the veteran’s treatment records. Years later, the veteran submits a new doctor’s note confirming they still have knee problems, but this evidence is not relevant because the claim was denied for a lack of an in-service event, not a current diagnosis.
However, a buddy statement from a fellow service member who remembers how and when the knee injury happened during service is both new and relevant because it helps prove the in-service event that VA previously said was missing.
How to Reopen a VA Claim
To reopen a claim with VA, veterans should first gather their new and relevant evidence. Once this evidence is collected, veterans should then complete and submit VA Form 20-0995 (Supplemental Claim) to their local VA Regional Office. In this form, they should select the previously denied issue(s) for which they are reopening the claim.
Veterans can submit VA Form 20-0995 in one of three ways:
- In Person
- VA.gov
Once submitted, VA will review the veteran’s request and decide whether their evidence is new and relevant. If so, VA will reopen the claim and issue a new decision. However, if VA decides that the evidence is not new and relevant, then it will deny the request.
Note that if VA does reopen a veteran’s claim, the veteran’s effective date will typically be the date the Supplemental Claim was filed—not the original claim date. Thus, retroactive benefits can only be from that more recent effective date. In rare cases, a veteran may receive an earlier effective date if VA made a clear and unmistakable error (CUE) in the prior denial.
What Happens if VA Denies a Reopened Claim?
Unfortunately, VA may still deny a reopened claim. If this occurs, veterans have appeal options. Under AMA, as mentioned before, a veteran can:
- File a Higher-Level Review
- File another supplemental claim with stronger evidence
- Appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals
Persistence can pay off, and each lane has its pros and cons. Read more about the AMA Appeal Lanes.
Need Help with Your Supplemental Claim? Call CCK Law
If VA denied your VA disability compensation claim, then CCK Law may be able to help. Call us today at (800) 544-9144 for a free case evaluation with a member of our team. For over 25 years, we have been helping tens of thousands of veterans get the benefits they were wrongfully denied. We would be proud to be able to assist you, too.
