C&P examiners conduct hundreds of exams a month. With that amount of work, chances are they did not conduct a thorough review of your records, likely missing important records. We have successfully argued hundreds of times for new C&P exams. The new exams have specific instructions for the examiner to consider evidence they previously missed, resulting in the award of benefits.

Even if a C&P examiner reviews all your records, they often make inaccurate conclusions. A Higher Level Review gives you the opportunity to present why the C&P exam is incorrect.

The VA often assigns incorrect effective dates, resulting in the loss of thousands of dollars in benefits you earned. A Higher Level Review can help fix incorrect effective dates.

The VA is required to award benefits when there is an approximate “balance of evidence”. If you submitted your own nexus opinion, but were still denied benefits, a Higher Level Review can help prove that the evidence is at least balanced, in which case you get the benefits you deserve.

Currently, there are only two regional offices that process HLR claims. Both are known as Decision Review Operation Centers (DROC). On the East coast, the St. Petersburg DROC, and on the West coast, the Seattle DROC. Which DROC your claim is assigned to is mostly random.

The VA is designed to allow veterans as many appeal opportunities as possible. There is not a “one and done” rule. When congress passed the AMA, they kept in mind the different types of appeals that would best serve veterans.
Following a decision on a HLR, you can file a supplemental claim, or a Board appeal.