SCOTUS Rules on Appropriate Analysis Federal Circuit Must Apply to Review Veterans' Appeals Court Errors

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court decided Shinseki v. Sanders, No. 07-1209. Here is the BNA U.S. Law Week summary of the holding:

In reviewing veterans' claims on appeal from the Court of Appeals for Veterans' Claims where the Department of Veterans Affairs has failed to provide a veteran with a certain kind of statutorily required notice, the Federal Circuit is required by 38 U.S.C. §7671(b)(2) to rely on the kind of "harmless error" analysis that is usually applied in civil cases, rather than an overly complex and rigid framework of presumptions and evidentiary burdens.