Question: How much weight are Board of Veterans’ Appeals (“the Board”) given?
Answer: It depends. For starters, a Regional Office Adjudicators (i.e., Rating Specialists and Decision Review Officers) and Veterans Law Judges at the Board are not required to follow Board decisions.
However, VA adjudicators may, and often do, follow Board decisions. Board judges, in particular, are always interested in the analysis of other Board members. Of course, the persuasiveness of the Board decision depends upon how closely its facts and legal issues compare with those of the veteran’s case. The closer the facts and the applicable law, the more likely the adjudicator will follow it.
