The Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims recently remanded a case after VA and its attorneys agreed there were errors in the Board’s handling of a veteran’s claim. The Board failed to ensure compliance with its own July 2019 remand instructions, violating the veteran’s legal right to substantial compliance under Stegall v. West.
The Board directed the Agency of Original Jurisdiction (AOJ) to obtain a vocational assessment from a qualified Veterans Health Administration Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist. The specialist needed to evaluate how the veteran’s service-connected disabilities impacted his ability to work, including providing examples of feasible employment options. If such a specialist was unavailable, the Board required a professional with “appropriate expertise” to complete the evaluation.
In December 2019, a physician’s assistant conducted a Social Work and Industrial Survey. The examiner admitted they were not a vocational expert and lacked the necessary qualifications. They failed to evaluate the veteran’s functional impairments or provide meaningful insight into his occupational capabilities. Instead, the report focused on irrelevant factors, such as the veteran’s personal history and age-related issues, without addressing the service-connected disabilities.
The Board’s review of the report was superficial. It stated that the AOJ’s actions satisfied the remand directives without analyzing the report’s quality or explaining its reliance on the unqualified examiner’s opinion. The Board also ignored the examiner’s explicit admission of incompetence to perform the requested evaluation. This oversight contravened established case law, including Wise v. Shinseki, which requires the Board to address competency issues when an examiner acknowledges a lack of expertise.
The parties jointly determined that substantial compliance with the remand instructions had not occurred. At their request, the Court ordered a remand to obtain a proper vocational assessment from a qualified professional. This decision reinforces the VA’s duty to follow remand directives and underscores veterans’ rights to fair and thorough evaluations.
This victory highlights the importance of holding the VA accountable and ensuring veterans receive the benefits they deserve.
