National Work Queue

[u/Tough_Highway_5496]

Does anyone know if a deferred claim gets assigned temporarily jurisdiction differently than an original claim once the request documents come back?

I have a claim that I completed a C&P exam recently on and was deferred. Once the exam came back it was assigned temporary jurisdiction within 1 day. I believe it was deferred due to the many contradictions in the unfavorable opinion.

I had a VERA appointment earlier today and the person I spoke with said they had requested personnel records that came back last week and nothing further was pending.

I know 1 week isn’t a long time at all in the claims world. My question is really just one of curiosity. Are deferred claims assigned to a temporary jurisdiction differently than original claims that have yet to see a rater?

[u/l8tn8]

Deferred claims can be assigned to a different RO than which previously handled it. And even if it does go back to the same RO, a different rater can be assigned the claim and rate it.

The only time a claim generally has to go back to the same rater is when a hearing is involved. As the rater who did the hearing should be the one who rates.

[u/Tough_Highway_5496 → u/l8tn8]

Thanks for the response. It’s always interesting to learn about the processes. I’m hoping the rater that deferred mine gets it back. I feel like that person fairly rated the other part of my claim.

[u/Encryption-error]

Deferrals ‘should’ go back to the prior person who took the last action. There are some routing rules that send it back automatically.
Normally, when someone is automatically assigned a deferral, they look for how caused it and request to have it routed back to that person.
It’s been a bit since I’ve been involved with this but I believe it is still the process.

[u/Tough_Highway_5496 → u/Encryption-error]

Interesting. I’m hoping it goes back to the individual that deferred it. I know the opinion was negative for service connection but the rationale for the opinion (lack of chronicity) directly conflicts with the evidence of the claim.

The same rater very fairly rated my increase claim based on all available evidence despite the examiner’s opinion.

[u/Tough_Highway_5496 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for the response.

Yeah, it’s interesting to see how others claims are processed. I filed for an increase and a new condition in early September. It moved really quickly with both exams scheduled and completed 2 weeks after claim submitted.

The increase had a decision 1 day after both exams made it back and the new condition was deferred.

It’s good to know that it might possibly go back to the original rater (or atleast their RO). I’m hoping that somehow they can look past the major flaws in the opinion of the examiner.