Rifleman62 said:
By that I think you mean the written submission prepared by the BPA Lawyer, reviewed by the appellant, then "argued" by the BPA Lawyer at the closed door hearing that you, the appellant, are not allowed to attend. The Appeal Hearing.
The written submission is submitted to VRAB prior to the Appeal hearing. For the hearing itself, it may proceed via written or oral presentation by your BPA lawyer. And Wook is right, you can be present at the Appeal hearing, but at your own expense (contrary to a Review hearing, where certain travel costs are covered). In fact, all hearings are open to the public.
While you may not be able to present ORAL evidence (i.e. testimony) at the Appeal hearing, one slight way around that is to represent yourself. Your BPA lawyer will council you against it, but it is your right to do so, and they'll be in the room with you anyway. It's a little tricky, and a bit of a grey area as to what would happen, but you could slip in oral testimony by representing yourself. One thing I haven't seen done yet is a client, instead of preparing a written document, send in a cd/dvd whatever format, of them providing new evidence. It might be a way around the "no oral testimony".
Basic info on BPA and the process
here, as well as on VRAB and the process
here.
Rifleman62 said:
Sounds like you are employed by VAC.
Is that a problem, Rifleman62?
Oh, wanted clarify something I said earlier: "Also, if I remember correctly, you can request a copy of the Review hearing. From there, you can determine if there were errors in any of your testimony as it appears in the decision, which you may think - because of omission, bad interpretation, etc. - were a factor in the decision."
You can request, I do believe but haven't gotten a straight answer yet, a copy of the
audio recording of the Review hearing. Then do a comparison between what's been transcribed in the decision to what you actually said. I haven't seen anyone do it yet, and would suggest it to those who feel their testimony was misinterpreted or something key was omitted.
By way of links, VRAB's posted depersonalized copies of decisions dealing with all sorts of subjects, from common conditions seen at VAC to legislation to medical issues
here. I haven't had the chance to root through it myself to find Recon decision examples, but when I do, I'll post it here.