Veterans Benefits & Issues: Orders & Decisions

Public access to pertinent orders and decisions are noted on this page.   

Many courts now post copies of their recent opinions on the court's website, including Opinions of the United States Supreme Court.  However, these websites are not designed as searchable databases of caselaw.  They are great for locating the text of a known case, but not for finding cases on a specific topic.

Google Scholar, in addition to being a great place to search for scholarly articles, has the text of many court opinions.

The President also passes executive orders that promote veterans' benefits programs.  Executive orders are published in the Federal Register.  The National Archives maintains an online executive order disposition index, arranged by Presidential term.  The following are a few key executive orders on veterans programs:

1) Exec. Order No. 13625, 77 Fed. Reg. 54783 (August 31, 2012) (increasing veterans, service members, and military families access to psychological care).
2) Exec. Order No. 13360, 69 Fed. Reg. 62549 (October 26, 2004) (promoting government contracts with business owned by veterans with service-connected disabilities).

The Board of Veterans Appeals releases redacted disability claim decisions.  These decisions are useful to see how the BVA has decided cases for specific diagnostic codes, types of administrative errors, and the VA's interpretation of statutes and regulations.

Boards of Veterans' Appeals Decisions.  Researchers can search BVA opinions on the VA's BVA decisions website.  UIC Law faculty, students, and staff can also search Westlaw's FMIL-BVA database for BVA decisions.  

US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims

Search USCAVC Decisions and Opinions Page.  The United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (USCAVC) reviews cases appealed from the BVA.  This USCAVC resource allows a researcher to access prior USCAVC decisions and opinions.  These decisions are useful because the case precedent can be cited in veterans' claims documents.  UIC Law faculty, students, and staff can also search Westlaw's FMIL-VA database for USCAVC decisions and opinions.

Federal Circuit Court of Appeals

• The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Opinions & Orders Search.  A researcher can access appeals from the USCAVC through the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Website.  In the origin list box, select the CAVC.  The opinions search function is limited to retrieving by a case name, number or date, making it difficult to search for cases with similar legal or factual issues.    
• Westlaw (UIC Law faculty, students, or staffs).  UIC Law faculty, students and staff with Westlaw access can keyword search the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Opinions & Orders.

Search Strategy: On Google Scholar, it is possible to keyword search a portion of Federal Circuit Court of Appeals decisions and limit the cases to CAVC decisions.  Go to Google Scholar --> select the Legal Documents radio button --> Click Select Court Links--> Select Federal Circuit-->Click Done--> [Enter search terms] AND ("Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims" OR "court of veterans appeals").    

United States Supreme Court

• The United States Reports.  The UIC Law library has the United States Reports, the official Supreme Court reporter.  UIC Law faculty, students, and staff can also search the Court's decisions on Westlaw or LexisNexis (U.S. Supreme Court Cases, Lawyers' Edition).    
• Oyez's Unofficial United States Supreme Court Decisions.  The public can search Supreme Court Decisions on Oyez's page.  

Search Strategy: while searching Supreme Court cases on a proprietary database (e.g., Westlaw) or a free website (e.g. Oyez), a researcher can enter [search terms] AND ("board of veterans' appeals" OR "veterans' claims") to retrieve veterans claims that originated in the BVA.