Check the source behind the explanation
Every page links the authority it relies on, because you should be able to go and read it. Preference is for the regulations themselves, VA's official forms and guidance, and official court opinions.
These are not interchangeable. A regulation, an agency FAQ, a clinician's report, a court holding, and one Board decision carry very different weight, and a page that blurs them is doing you a disservice. Board decisions bind only their own case — 38 C.F.R. §20.1303 — however similar the facts look.
What was verified, and when
Before publication on October 6, 2026, each of the following was checked against the primary source and quoted back:
- Higher-Level Review: the one-year window, the no-new-evidence rule, and the bar on a second HLR after an HLR or Board appeal
- Board appeals: the three dockets, the 90-day evidence windows, the one-year request period, and the 60-day contested-claims exception
- The court deadline: 120 days from the Board's mailing, and that the Notice must be received rather than posted
- Intent to file: which benefits it covers, including Supplemental Claims for disability
- All 70 public DBQ links, compared against VA's directory as a complete set
What has not been verified
Case-law pages are not published yet. The research behind them ran no commercial citator, and a summary that cites a decision without checking its later history is exactly the kind of thing that gets repeated by people who trust it. Those pages will appear when that work is done.
Condition and rating-criteria pages are also still being checked code by code. Where a page does not exist yet, that is why.
Updates
A working link does not prove the rule behind it still applies, so "updated" here means the substance was re-checked, not that a file was saved. Review dates appear on each page.
If a page and a current official instruction disagree, the official source wins — follow it, and please tell me about the discrepancy.
Corrections
There is no contact form on this site, by design. Until a monitored correction channel exists, please rely on the linked primary authority, and get accredited help for anything personal and urgent. A correction sent to a website never preserves a deadline.
Reviewed October 6, 2026