Did the VA Quietly Close Your Legacy Appeal?
What Freund v. Collins Could
Mean for Veterans and Survivors
For years, some veterans believed their VA disability appeals were slowly moving through the Board of Veterans’ Appeals backlog.
In reality, their appeals were no longer moving at all.
The Department of Veterans Affairs’ former appeals-tracking system had marked the appeals closed, sometimes because a timely appeal document had not been properly scanned, identified, or entered into the system. The affected veterans generally received no notice that this had happened.
A proposed class action settlement in Freund v. Collins could require the VA to review tens of thousands of these old appeal files, reactivate appeals that were improperly closed, and resume processing them.
For veterans and surviving family members, the consequences could be substantial. If an old appeal is restored and ultimately succeeds, the claimant may be able to preserve an effective date tied to the original claim or appeal. Depending on the facts, that could result in years or even decades of retroactive compensation.
Reactivation, however, is not the same as winning the underlying claim. Each restored appeal would still have to be decided on its merits.
What Was the Legacy Appeals System?
Before the Appeals Modernization Act took effect in 2019, most VA appeals followed
what is now called the legacy process.
The usual sequence was:
The VA issued a decision on a claim.
The claimant filed a Notice of Disagreement.
The VA issued a Statement of the Case.
The claimant filed a Substantive Appeal, frequently using VA Form 9, to request review by the Board of Veterans’ Appeals.
The VA certified and transferred the appeal to the Board.
A Substantive Appeal generally had to be filed within 60 days after the Statement of the Case or within one year after the original decision, whichever deadline came later.
The VA tracked legacy appeals through the Veterans Appeals Control and Locator System, commonly called VACOLS.
How Were Appeals Closed Without Notice?
When the VA received a Substantive Appeal, an employee was supposed to record it in VACOLS.
VACOLS automatically marked an appeal closed if the system did not show that a timely Substantive Appeal had been filed. The automated closure generally occurred on the first day of the month after the filing deadline.
That process depended on the accuracy and timeliness of the information entered by VA employees.
A veteran could file an appeal on time, but the document might not be scanned promptly. It might be assigned an incorrect receipt date, mislabeled, or otherwise overlooked. If VACOLS did not reflect the filing, the automated process treated the case as though no appeal had been received.
The VA generally did not notify the claimant that VACOLS had closed the appeal.
The veteran might therefore continue waiting for a Board decision that would never arrive.
In its 2024 decision, the Federal Circuit described the problem as a computer program automatically and improperly sweeping appeals out of the system. The court concluded that the proposed class members shared a common injury and returned the case to the Veterans Court for further proceedings. Read the Federal Circuit’s 2024 decision.
The VA’s Own Review Showed a Serious Problem
The available numbers suggest that these were not isolated clerical mistakes.
In May 2022, the VA reviewed 3,806 pending VA Form 9 filings that might have been associated with prematurely or erroneously closed appeals. The VA determined that 2,893 required reactivation. That is approximately 76 percent of the files reviewed.
Those results appeared in the VA’s August 2023 report to Congress on implementation of appeals modernization. Review the VA’s August 2023 report.
The scale of the proposed settlement is even larger.
Who Is Included in the Freund Class?
On March 18, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims certified a class consisting of:
All claimants with an appeal file in VACOLS that was closed between December 12, 1990, and February 6, 2025, because the system did not show a timely Substantive Appeal, and whose appeal remains closed.
The class can include:
Veterans who filed the underlying claims.
People who have already been substituted for deceased claimants.
Certain survivors who may be eligible to request substitution.
This case concerns Substantive Appeals in the legacy system. It does not apply merely because the VA denied a claim, because a claimant filed a Notice of Disagreement, or because an AMA appeal is taking a long time.
A person may be affected if:
The VA initially decided the claim before February 19, 2019.
The claimant received a Statement of the Case.
The claimant filed a VA Form 9 or another document requesting Board review.
The Board never issued a final decision on that appeal.
The claimant was not told that the appeal had been closed.
What Would the Proposed Settlement Require?
The settlement is not yet final.
If approved, the VA would manually examine 28,258 appeal files that its search identified as having documents in the Veterans Benefits Management System that might be timely Substantive Appeals.
For those files, the VA would:
Review the record for a timely Substantive Appeal.
Reactivate appeals that were improperly closed.
Notify the affected claimants.
Complete the review and reactivation process in under 18 months.
The VA also identified up to 64,599 additional closed appeal files that met most, but not all, of its search criteria. Claimants in this second group are expected to receive notice of their right to request an individual review.
This distinction matters. The proposed settlement does not promise that every one of the approximately 92,857 identified files will automatically be reopened. Some files will receive an automatic audit. Others may require the veteran, survivor, or representative to affirmatively request review.
The VA’s official settlement notice provides additional information about the class and the review process.
What Happens on August 13, 2026?
The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims will hold a fairness hearing on August 13, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time.
The Veterans Court will decide whether the proposed settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate. The hearing is expected to be livestreamed, with recordings later made available through the court’s website. Read the official hearing announcement.
The deadline for class members to submit formal objections to the proposed settlement was May 15, 2026. Although that deadline has passed, potentially affected claimants may still contact class counsel or consult their own VA-accredited representative.
The court has appointed John D. Niles of Carpenter Chartered as class counsel. Veterans do not need to hire a private attorney to remain members of the class, and they should not contact the court directly with questions about whether they qualify.
Could a Reactivated Appeal Produce Decades of Back Pay?
Potentially, but not automatically.
Reactivation returns an appeal to the position it should have occupied if the VA had properly processed it. The VA or the Board must then address the underlying benefits issues.
If the claimant ultimately prevails, the preserved procedural history may support an effective date connected to the original claim. The amount of any retroactive compensation would depend on several issues, including:
The original claim date.
The issues included in the appeal.
Whether the evidence supports service connection or a higher rating.
The proper effective date under VA law.
The veteran’s disability rating during the relevant periods.
Whether a qualifying survivor may receive accrued or substituted benefits.
No claimant should assume that reactivation guarantees benefits or a particular amount of back pay. Nevertheless, an appeal dating to the 1990s or early 2000s could carry significant legal and financial consequences.
How I Can Help an Affected Veteran or Survivor
The hardest part may be determining what actually happened to an appeal many years ago.
As a VA-accredited attorney, I can help a veteran or eligible survivor:
Obtain and review the VA claims file.
Examine the VACOLS and VBMS appeal history.
Locate the relevant rating decision and Statement of the Case.
Identify a VA Form 9, correspondence, hearing request, or other document that may qualify as a Substantive Appeal.
Compare document dates with the applicable filing deadlines.
Determine whether the Board ever issued a final decision.
Help request VA review when a file is not automatically included in the audit.
Address substitution issues when the original claimant has died.
Evaluate and develop the underlying disability appeal if the VA reactivates it.
Monitor whether the VA properly restores the appeal and preserves the appropriate procedural history.
My role would not replace the court-appointed class counsel, who represents the class concerning the settlement itself. Individual representation may be useful when a veteran needs help examining a complicated claims file, asking the VA to review a potentially omitted appeal, or pursuing the merits of an appeal after reactivation.
I am an Air Force veteran, a former federal employee, and an attorney whose practice focuses on federal veterans law. I spent years working inside federal administrative systems. I now help veterans understand what those systems did, what the record actually shows, and what options remain available.
Records Worth Looking For
Veterans and survivors who believe an old appeal disappeared should preserve or locate:
Rating decisions.
Notices of Disagreement.
Statements of the Case.
VA Forms 9.
Certified-mail receipts, fax confirmations, or upload records.
Letters from the VA or a veterans service organization.
Board hearing notices or transcripts.
Copies of the claims file.
Any correspondence asking the VA about the status of the appeal.
A missing personal copy does not necessarily end the inquiry. The document may still exist in the VA’s electronic or paper claims records.
The Larger Lesson
The Freund litigation demonstrates how an administrative tracking error can have legal consequences lasting for decades.
Veterans should not have to know the internal workings of a federal database to keep a properly filed appeal alive. They also should not lose their rights because an agency received a document but failed to record it correctly.
If you filed a legacy Substantive Appeal and never received a Board decision, it may be worth determining whether your appeal was closed without notice.
Information provided in this article is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading this article does not create an attorney-client relationship with the Law Office of D.C. Burnette, PLLC. Every case is different. Veterans and survivors with questions about a particular appeal should consult a VA-accredited representative or attorney.
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