“Are VA disability claims necessarily defeated, as held in Ortiz v. Principi, 274 F.3d 1361 (Fed. Cir. 2001), when the preponderance of the evidence weighs against them; or, does Ortiz conflict with the plain language of 38 U.S.C. § 5107(b) and 38 C.F.R. § 3.102, thereby gravely undermining the paternalistic, pro-claimant Veterans Administration (‘the VA’, ‘the Agency’, ‘the Government’) system for awarding benefits to deserving disabled veterans?”
“[W]e depart from Ortiz’s ‘preponderance of the evidence’ language and determine that the benefit-of-the-doubt rule simply applies if the competing evidence is in ‘approximate balance,’ which Ortiz correctly interpreted as evidence that is ‘nearly equal.’”
