“Whether the court of appeals erred in holding that a failure of the [Veterans Administration] to give the notice required by the [Veterans Claims Assistance Act] must be presumed to be prejudicial.”
“In our view, the Federal Circuit’s ‘harmless-error’ framework is too complex and rigid, its presumptions impose unreasonable evidentiary burdens upon the VA, and it is too likely too often to require the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (Veterans Court) to treat as harmful errors that in fact are harmless. We conclude that the framework conflicts with established law. . . . We conclude that the Federal Circuit’s harmless-error framework is inconsistent with the statutory requirement that the Veterans Court take ‘due account of the rule of prejudicial error.’ 38 U.S.C. § 7261(b)(2).”
