IOP-Post Panel Process
United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims
INTERNAL OPERATING PROCEDURES
IV. POST-PANEL PROCESS
(a) Panel Action, Dissent, and Concurrence.
(1) The author judge, assigned under III(b)(3) and (c)(2), circulates a draft opinion, memorandum decision, or order within the panel for comment. A panel member who plans to write a concurrence or dissent notifies the other panel members promptly and circulates it within the panel as soon as practicable.
(2) The author judge circulates the final product of the panel, including any concurrence or dissent, to all judges for review and comment and to the Editor for format and style review. Within 5 working days, any editorial comments are sent to the author judge, any substantive comments are sent to all judges, and any request for en banc consideration is sent to the Senior Staff Attorney with copies to all judges.
(3) Unless action is pending on an en banc request, the author judge forwards a reproducible hard copy and a disk copy of the final opinion, memorandum decision, or order, with any concurrence or dissent, to the Editor as soon as practicable after the comment time has expired and comments have been considered.
(b) Reconsideration. If a party moves for reconsideration of a panel action, the motion is referred for CLS evaluation and preparation of a draft action for the panel, which denies the motion or grants it and reconsiders the action.
(c) Review. Any motion by a party for review of a panel decision by the Court en banc is processed in accordance with en banc procedures.
(d) Remand. In the interests of judicial efficiency, if a case has been remanded, a new appeal from the BVA decision on remand is referred, when action by a judge is required, to the judge who authored the remand decision and, when a panel is required, to the panel (if any) that considered the pre-remand appeal. However, if the author judge finds the new appeal is substantially different from the one remanded, he returns it to the Clerk for routine assignment and processing.
