What is 38 C.F.R. § 3.156(c)?

It is the rule that requires VA to reconsider a previously decided claim when it later receives official service department records that existed when the claim was first decided but were not in the file. Unlike most ways of challenging an old decision, it does not require VA to have made any error.

How is this different from a CUE claim?

A CUE claim requires proving VA made an undebatable error. Section 3.156(c) requires no error at all. The question is simply whether qualifying service records existed then, were missing from the file, and are relevant to the claim. That makes it a far easier standard to meet when it applies.

Do unit records count if they never mention me by name?

Yes. The regulation specifically covers service records related to a claimed in-service event, injury, or disease regardless of whether they mention the veteran by name. Unit records, deck logs, and morning reports that corroborate what happened to your unit can qualify.

What does not count under 3.156(c)?

Private medical records, VA treatment records, and new medical opinions are not service department records, so they do not trigger reconsideration under this rule. Neither do records that did not exist when VA first decided the claim, or records VA could not obtain because it was never given enough information to find them.

Is there a deadline to raise 3.156(c)?

No. The regulation applies at any time after VA issues a decision on a claim. What matters is the nature of the records, not how long ago the decision was made.

Found Service Records Can Move Your Effective Date. No Error Required.

Q: How far back can the effective date go under 3.156(c)?

If VA grants benefits based all or in part on those records, the effective date is the date entitlement arose or the date VA received the previously decided claim, whichever is later. In practice that often means the original claim date, which can be years or decades earlier than a new claim would produce.

The last article covered clear and unmistakable error, the narrow way to reopen a VA decision that went final years ago. The honest takeaway there was that most old decisions do not contain CUE, because the standard is built to catch obvious mistakes and not much else.

So here is the rule people should be looking at first, and usually are not.

If VA later gets its hands on service records that existed all along but were never in your file, it has to go back and reconsider the claim. No error required. No argument about what a reasonable adjudicator would have done. The effective date can move back to your original claim, which is the same prize CUE offers, on a standard that is far easier to meet.

The rule is 38 C.F.R. § 3.156(c).

What triggers 38 C.F.R. § 3.156(c): your personnel file, unit records and deck logs even if they never name you, and separately filed inpatient records. Private medical records and new nexus opinions do not.

What the rule actually says

At any time after VA decides a claim, if it receives or associates with your file relevant official service department records that existed and were not in the file when the claim was first decided, VA reconsiders the claim.

Three words are doing the work.

Official service department records. Records from the military, not from a doctor down the street. Your service branch, the Department of Defense, the National Personnel Records Center.

Existed. The records had to be in existence back when VA first decided. Something created later does not count.

Not associated with the file. They were out there somewhere, but VA did not have them in front of it.

That is the whole test. Notice what is missing from it: any requirement that VA did something wrong.

Why this matters more than CUE for most people

Put the two side by side.

A CUE claim asks you to prove VA made an undebatable mistake, judged on the record and the law as they existed decades ago, where reasonable minds could not differ. Most claims fail that test, and you generally get one attempt per theory.

Section 3.156(c) asks a much simpler question. Did qualifying records exist, were they missing, and are they relevant? If yes, VA reconsiders and the effective date follows. VA can be entirely blameless and the rule still applies.

That is why it is worth ruling this out before spending your one CUE attempt on a harder argument.

What counts as a service department record

This is where the rule is more generous than most veterans realize:

Your Official Military Personnel File. Duty assignments, evaluations, awards, transfers, disciplinary records. This is not the same thing as your service treatment records, and it is frequently never requested.
Unit records, deck logs, morning reports, and command histories. The regulation expressly covers records related to a claimed in-service event regardless of whether they mention you by name. A deck log showing where your ship was, or a unit record confirming an incident happened, can be enough.
Records the service department sent late. Anything forwarded by DoD or your branch after VA’s original request.
Inpatient and clinical records. Hospital records are often filed by facility and year rather than with your STRs, so a “complete” STR packet routinely is not complete.
Declassified records that could not have been produced earlier because they were classified at the time.
Records from a separate period of service that were never pulled.

For stressor-based claims this is significant. When the Joint Services Records Research Center verifies an event that VA previously could not confirm, that verification often rests on exactly these kinds of records.

What does not count

Private medical records. Not service department records, no matter how helpful.
VA treatment records. Also not service department records.
A new medical opinion or nexus letter. That is new evidence, which runs through a supplemental claim, not reconsideration.
Records that did not exist then. If it was created after the decision, this rule is not the path.
Records VA could not identify. If VA was never given enough information to locate the records from the service department, JSRRC, or another official source, the rule does not apply.

The effective date, which is the entire point

When VA grants benefits based all or in part on those records, the award is effective on the date entitlement arose or the date VA received the previously decided claim, whichever is later.

In plain terms: the clock usually resets to your original claim rather than the day you filed again. That is the difference between being paid from 2026 and being paid from 1994.

There is a related provision worth knowing. If the found records clearly support a particular rating over part or all of that stretch of time, VA is supposed to assign that rating retroactively rather than just granting service connection going forward.

One word people fight about

The regulation says relevant service department records. VA has sometimes read that narrowly, arguing records only count if they contradict the specific reason the claim was originally denied.

That argument went all the way to the Supreme Court. In Kisor v. Wilkie, a Vietnam veteran who first claimed PTSD benefits in 1982 later had service records surface, and the fight was over whether those records were “relevant” enough to trigger reconsideration and an earlier effective date. The Court took the case up on how much deference an agency gets when reading its own regulation, decided that in 2019, and sent it back down.

The practical lesson for a veteran is simpler than the doctrine. Expect VA to take a narrow view of “relevant,” and be ready to explain specifically how the found records connect to what was claimed.

How to actually use this

Most of the time nobody goes looking, which is the real reason this rule sits unused. Two concrete steps:

Request your complete personnel file, not just your medical records. Your OMPF is a separate file from your STRs, and it is the single most common source of qualifying records. It can be requested through the National Personnel Records Center or, for more recent service, through milConnect.
Ask for the records VA does not automatically pull. Inpatient and clinical records by facility and year. Unit records for the period and place where the event happened. If a claim was denied for an unverified stressor, that is exactly the gap these records fill.

Then compare what comes back against what VA actually had when it decided. If something in that stack existed then and was not in the file, you may be looking at reconsideration rather than a new claim, and a much older effective date.

What to do next

If you have an old denial and you have been told your only option is starting over, that may not be right. Starting over gets you a new effective date. Reconsideration under this rule can get you the old one.

And if VA never decided the claim at all, that is a third path worth checking. See unadjudicated claims.

Whether it applies depends on what records exist, when they were created, and what VA had at the time. Nobody can answer that from a description over the phone. But if you have never pulled your complete personnel file, that is the place to start, and it costs nothing but time.

Blackmore Veterans Law, P.C. is a solo practice representing veterans in VA disability claims and appeals. Contact us to discuss your situation.

This article is general information about VA disability law and is not legal advice for any individual case. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Attorney advertising.