08/10/2026

AMA or VA Legacy System: Why Your Case File Location Matters in the Freund Lawsuit

VA Benefits, Resources for Injured People, VA Disability,

If you want to figure out whether the Freund v. Collins proposed class-action settlement could apply to you, the first step is determining which appeal system your case is located under: the AMA (Appeals Modernization Act) or the VA legacy system.

A legacy appeal is any veteran benefits appeal of a VA decision made before February 19, 2019. Decisions made after that date can only be appealed under the AMA, and are not within the scope of the Freund case. If you find that your case is listed under the legacy appeals system and not the AMA appeals system, then the Freund proposed settlement could apply to you.  

What is the Freund case?

Freund v. Collins is a proposed class-action settlement under which the VA would review and potentially reopen thousands of flagged files that may have been wrongfully closed due to a tracking error in the VA computer database. More than 92,000 veterans whose appeals were closed between December 12, 1990, and February 6, 2025, may have been affected.

How the legacy system worked

Under the legacy system, nearly all disagreements were sent to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, and required the following documents to be filed: 

1. A Notice of Disagreement within 1 year of receiving the VA’s decision, and
2. A Substantive Appeal, within 60 days of the date of the VA’s Statement of the Case or one year of the original decision letter, whichever was later.

If the Board remanded your appeal — meaning they decided that the regional office needed to provide more evidence — then the regional office would have to follow the Board’s specific instructions to supplement the case, which typically included obtaining additional medical exams, gathering records, or requesting clarification from the veteran.

If the benefits a Veteran requested were not granted in full after a Board remand, the regional office would issue a Supplemental Statement of the Case explaining its reasoning, and the appeal would automatically return to the Board for another decision.

A case could cycle through that loop for years due to inadequate exams, missing records, new evidence, or incomplete development by VA, all without the veteran doing anything wrong. That loop is a big reason legacy appeals could take a decade or more to resolve.

How the AMA system works and what it changed

The AMA (Appeals Modernization Act) became effective on February 19, 2019, and replaced that single path to appeal with three review options for veterans to select based on what the case needed.

The three review options under the AMA system are: 

1. Supplemental Claim — for submitting new and relevant evidence.
2. Higher-Level Review — where a more senior reviewer takes a fresh look at the same evidence.
3. Board Appeal — a review by a Veterans Law Judge at the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, with three further choices of what kinds of evidence should be considered and when.

Notably, the AMA removed the need for the Substantive Appeal, allowing veterans to appeal straight to the Board without doing all the paperwork the legacy system required.

It also offered veterans review options that could resolve a disagreement without involving the Board at all, bypassing a remand.

At its core, the AMA system was intended to improve how quickly a veteran received a final decision, in part by curbing the remand cycle that had been sending legacy appeals cycling between the Board and the regional office for many years.

Why the difference matters for the Freund case

The appeal system that your case is under matters because the Freund error only applies to legacy appeals. If your case is considered a legacy appeal, it would have been mishandled in a specific way to fall within the Freund case.

To be a member of the proposed class, you generally had to have done or experienced all of the following:

1. Filed a Notice of Disagreement
2. Received a Statement of the Case
3. Timely filed a Substantive Appeal
4. Had the appeal wrongfully closed because the VA database missed the Substantive Appeal.

If your case is filed under the AMA system, that legacy appeals error could not have happened to you since there is no separate Substantive Appeal for a tracking system to miss.

How can I tell if my appeal is legacy or AMA?

You can determine if your appeal is under the legacy system or the AMA by reviewing the date on your received VA rating decision and notice letter. If you received a regional office rating decision with a notice letter dated:

1. On or after February 19, 2019, your case is in the AMA system.
2. Before February 19, 2019, and you did not opt into the AMA system, it is likely a legacy appeal.

If your case is in the legacy system, you may have received documents like a Statement of the Case, or a Supplemental Statement of the Case along the way. If you further received a Board decision, then while your case might be a legacy case, you are not considered affected by the Freund class action.

For appeals with a notice letter dated between November 2 ,2017, and February 19, 2019, you had the choice to opt into the AMA system. To determine which system your case is under, you need to review your file or contact a VA-Accredited attorney to access your file.

Common misconceptions about legacy appeals

Two misunderstandings often come up as it relates to a Veterans status as a Freund class member. First, veterans sometimes believe they are Freund class members but are disqualified if the following occurred:  

1. The veteran received a Board decision. 
2. The veteran never filed their Substantive Appeal.
3. The veteran never received a Statement of the Case. (Some of these veterans may still be entitled to an earlier effective date for other reasons, which is worth exploring separately.)

Secondly, being a class member is not the same as being automatically entitled to compensation for the VA’s mistake. Your case would need to have been wrongfully closed due to the VA’s tracking error that would have otherwise led to granted benefits, meaning you still have to prove the underlying claim.

How Deuterman can help your Freund claim

If you are unsure if the Freund error applies to you, a VA-accredited attorney can support and work with you to identify the appeal system your case is filed under, confirm your filings, and determine if your appeal was wrongfully closed.

Contact Deuterman Law Group today to have your file reviewed.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What is the Freund case?

Ans: The Freund Case is a class-action proposed settlement in which the Department of Veterans Affairs has agreed to review thousands of disability appeals that its legacy software — the Veterans Appeals Control and Locator System, or VACOLS — may have wrongly closed.

Q2: What was the time period affected by the Freund case?

Ans: The proposed settlement reaches back across a 35-year stretch, capturing appeals closed between December 12, 1990, and February 6, 2025.

Q3: How many veterans were impacted by the Freund case?

Ans: More than 92,000 identified veterans may have been affected: 28,258 appellants whose cases will be automatically audited by the VA; roughly 64,000 additional veterans or surviving family members who will receive a notice from the VA; and an unknown number of others who used a different appeal form and were missed by the VA’s automated screening.

Q4: What date separates legacy appeals and AMA appeals?

Ans: February 19, 2019. Rating decisions with notice letters on or after that date are in the AMA system; earlier appeals pursued in the old system are legacy appeals (unless you opted into the AMA system sometime from November 2017 or later).

Q5: Does Freund apply to AMA appeals?

Ans: No. Freund applies only to legacy appeals for which a Substantive Appeal filed on time was mistakenly marked as missing by the VA.

Q6: Can I have appeals in both systems at once?

Ans: Yes, for different conditions. You cannot have two pending appeals for the same condition, and related conditions split across systems can create inconsistent results.

Q7: If I’m in the Freund class, does that mean I’m owed money?

Ans: Not automatically. Your case would have to have been wrongfully closed due to the VA’s tracking error that would have otherwise led to granted benefits, meaning you still have to prove the underlying claim. The case adds back pay only where the wrongly closed appeal would have resulted in granted benefits.