How to Use PEB-directed Rating Returns to Win Your IDES Case

When you review your initial PEB findings, you may find that the VA has denied service connection for your unfitting condition or used an inappropriate rating analysis, resulting in an incredibly low rating for that condition.

If this happens to you, you can expect that your PEBLO and your military counsel may advise you to immediately file a VA One-time Reconsideration Request (“VARR”) to appeal this decision.  However, you should bear in mind that the Decision Review Officer evaluating might disagree with your cousnel’s analysis of the case or might simply be having a bad day and reject your VARR.

To hedge my bets when representing clients facing such issues, I always consider filing a PEB-directed Rating Return (“PDRR”) per the criteria outlined in the VA Adjudication Manual M21-1, Part X.i.6.H.4.e.  In doing so, I submit a detailed brief with supporting medical records to the PEB and request that they submit a PDRR to the VA Rating Activity based on the points raised in my brief.

If you wonder why I would make this request instead of simply filing a VARR, the answer is simple- it gives you two bites at the apple, because a PDRR request does not count as a VARR.  In other words, you can still submit a VARR if the PDRR request is denied.