A Court Reopened 90,000 Veterans' Disability Appeals. A Database Had Closed Them.

More than 90,000 veterans and surviving family members are getting disability appeals back that the VA closed without anyone deciding them.

The appeals were closed between December 12, 1990 and February 6, 2025. The cause was not a judgment about any veteran’s case. It was a database.

How a System Closed Tens of Thousands of Appeals

The VA’s Veterans Appeals Control and Locator System ran an automatic sweep on the first day of each month. If a timely Substantive Appeal was not showing in the database, the system closed the appeal.

Sometimes the document had not been scanned. Sometimes the receipt date was entered wrong. Sometimes the paperwork was misidentified. The appeal was closed either way.

Jim Fausone, managing partner of Legal Help for Veterans, described what that looked like from the other side: “To the veteran, it was silence.”

Two Tracks, Two Very Different Obligations

The settlement in Freund v. Collins, case number 21-4168 before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, splits the class in two.

Track 1 covers 28,258 files with strong indicators that the appeal was timely. The VA must review and reactivate those itself within 18 months. The veteran does not have to do anything.

Track 2 covers up to 64,599 files where the indicators are weaker. Those veterans will receive letters and must respond to request review. Anyone who believes they belong in the class but never receives a letter has roughly one year after final court approval to come forward.

What It Is Worth

Claims that succeed carry compensation dating back to the original filing. For an appeal closed in the 1990s, that is a retroactive award measured in decades, not months.

The settlement reopens appeals. It does not decide them, and not every reopened case will result in a payment.

The Thing to Act On

If you or a family member filed a VA disability appeal in that 35-year window and never received a decision, that silence may not have meant denial. It may have meant the file was closed by a monthly sweep.

Watch the mail, and do not discard a letter from the VA about an old appeal.

References: Military.com