05/06/2026

A Computer Glitch Cost Veterans Decades of Disability Benefits. A Landmark Settlement Could Now Bring It All Back — With Back Pay Reaching to 1990.

VA Benefits, VA Disability,

DLG Senior Disability Attorney Claire Hillan Sosa breaks down what the Freund v. Collins settlement means for tens of thousands of veterans — and why some could be owed more than $1 million.

For decades, a quiet glitch inside a Department of Veterans Affairs computer system was costing American veterans something they could never get back: time. Now, after a hard-fought class-action lawsuit, those years may finally come with a price tag — paid retroactively, in some cases all the way back to 1990.

Under a newly proposed settlement in the class-action case Freund v. Collins, the Department of Veterans Affairs has agreed to comb back through tens of thousands of disability appeals that its legacy software — the Veterans Appeals Control and Locator System, or VACOLS — may have wrongly slammed shut.

Veterans or their surviving family members whose appeals were closed in error are members of the class, and their appeals will be reopened. Many of the claimants involved could be in line for substantial retroactive benefits. Deuterman Law Group Senior Disability Attorney Claire Hillan Sosa recently spoke with WHQR to explain what veterans need to know.

What went wrong

At the heart of the case is a software defect in VACOLS that mishandled a mandatory step in the legacy appeals process: the filing of a Substantive Appeal.

The system marked appeals as untimely even when veterans had submitted the required form on schedule. Once flagged, those appeals were administratively closed — frequently without any meaningful notice to the veteran — ending the pursuit of disability compensation before a case could ever be heard by the Board of Veterans’ Appeals.

The proposed settlement—which is not yet finalized by the Court—reaches back across a 35-year stretch, capturing appeals closed between December 12, 1990 and February 6, 2025.

Who is affected

Three groups of veterans may have improperly closed appeals reopened:

1. 28,258 appellants whose cases will be automatically audited by the VA. These appellants do not need to file anything. VA will mail notice letters to all 28,258 veterans or their survivors informing them of the audit, and then another notice letter if the audit results in reopening an old appeal.
2. Roughly 64,000 additional veterans or surviving family members who will receive a notice from the VA informing them of their right to request a review. These claimants will have one year from the date of VA’s notice letter to file their request.
3. An unknown number of others who used a different appeal form and were missed by the VA’s automated screening. As Hillan Sosa warns, “those people will also have to proactively reach out to VA and ask them to audit their cases.”

Why the dollar figures are eye-popping

Because effective dates for restored benefits can reach back to the date of the initial claim, as early as 1990 or even before then, the back-pay potential is staggering.

Once reopened, success on the previously closed appeals is not guaranteed. But for those that result in grants of the underlying claims—or those that can be successfully appealed again after VA finally issues a decision—the resulting benefits should be back-dated to the date of the Veteran’s initial denied claim.

Hillan Sosa ran the numbers. For a claimant currently with no service-connected disability or a 0% rating, backpay to 1990 would be significant:

1. A 10% disability rating: roughly $50,000 in back pay
2. A 50% rating: approximately $300,000
3. A 100% rating: as much as $1,081,000

“It could be a lot,” she said.

A preliminary audit of a group of approximately 5,400 cases similar to the first group of 28,000 revealed that nearly 70% were in fact closed erroneously.

Should you act?

Hillan Sosa offers a simple gut-check for veterans wondering whether they might be part of the class:

“Did I file an appeal to the Board of Veterans Appeals under the legacy appeals system, and it’s not still pending, and I haven’t received a decision? Then I might be a member of this class.”

If that sounds like your situation, the practical next step is straightforward: contact the VA — by phone or by submitting a written statement — and ask them to audit your case.

If you can’t get a clear answer, or the process feels overwhelming, get help from an accredited VSO or an experienced veterans’ disability attorney.

What happens next

Final court approval of the settlement is expected later this year. After that, the VA will begin its audit of the roughly 28,258 cases in the primary group of claimants and start sending notice letters to the additional 64,000 veterans entitled to request a review.

Even if you do not receive a notice letter that you may be a member of the class, you could still be in the class with appeals wrongly closed. The best thing to do is submit a request to VA, or reach out to a VA-accredited representative to investigate further.

That said, Hillan Sosa cautions that this is not going to be a fast process. “We’re all well aware of the backlog that VA already faces,” she told WHQR. “Reestablishing tens of thousands of cases in the legacy system at the Board of Veterans Appeals is going to take a while. We’re probably looking at years before this is all resolved.”

In other words: relief is coming — but veterans who think they may be affected shouldn’t simply wait by the mailbox, especially if they used a different appeal form and may have been missed by the VA’s automated screening.

How DLG can help

If you believe your appeal was wrongly closed — or you’re unsure where you stand — don’t let bureaucracy or the timeline keep you from what you’ve earned.

Deuterman Law Group’s veterans’ disability team, led by attorneys like Claire Hillan Sosa, is helping veterans across the country navigate this settlement and pursue every dollar of back pay they are owed.

We can help you determine whether you’re part of the class, file the right paperwork, and stand beside you through what is likely to be a long process.

Source: Read the full WHQR article featuring Claire Hillan Sosa →

Think you may be affected? Contact Deuterman Law Group for a free, no-obligation case review. We’ve spent decades helping veterans get the benefits they earned — and we’re ready to help you.