The court is outside VA

The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims reviews final Board decisions. It is independent of the VA adjudication chain, and it is not another round of claim development — it generally reviews the record that was already before the agency, looking for legal error.

The deadline, stated precisely

The Notice of Appeal must be received by the court no later than 120 days after the date the Board mailed notice of its decision. The date stamped on the front of the Board's decision is the mailing date.

Received, not postmarked. Sending it on day 119 does not satisfy the rule. Follow the court's own appeal instructions, including its filing method and its fee or hardship process.

You can represent yourself

The court's representation guide explains that option, and the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program may be able to help eligible appellants at no cost.

Contacting a potential representative does not file your appeal and does not stop the 120 days. File, then sort out representation.

What a court decision does

It may affirm, reverse, vacate, or remand, and it may do different things to different issues in the same decision. A remand is not an award. It sends an issue back for further work, which can end in another denial. That distinction disappoints a lot of people who read "the court agreed with me" into a remand order.

A remand also does not reopen the evidentiary record. If you elected Direct Review at the Board, winning here does not give you a chance to add the evidence you wish you had sent — Andrews v. McDonough (2021) decides exactly that, on the statute's text. The Board docket page sets out what does still get through and how.

Reversal, rather than remand, is rare. The other Andrews v. McDonough of the same year — different veteran, different question — sets out the narrow circumstances in which the court grants a claim outright instead of sending it back.

What the court will and will not second-guess

The split runs through 38 U.S.C. §7261: legal questions are reviewed fresh; factual findings only for clear error. That single line decides most appeals, because it means an argument that the Board weighed the evidence wrong is much weaker than an argument that it applied the wrong rule.

The Supreme Court made the point concretely in Bufkin v. Collins (2025): VA's decision that the evidence was not in approximate balance — that you did not get the benefit of the doubt — is "predominantly factual," so the court reviews it only for clear error. It will not reweigh the record for itself. How VA applied the rule, as a matter of law, is still reviewed fresh.

The practical reading of that is unwelcome but useful: the place to win on close evidence is at the Board and before it, not here. See building an evidence plan and the case pages.

If time is short, use the court's current instructions today. Do not wait on this site, or any site, to interpret your particular deadline.

Reviewed October 6, 2026