When a veteran is finally awarded disability benefits by the Department of Veterans Affairs, retroactive compensation is issued to cover the period from the claim’s filing date to its approval. However, determining the proper starting point, known as the “effective date,” has long been a contested issue. Veterans may face delays in filing for a range of personal or systemic reasons, and some have argued that the strict filing rule should be subject to equitable tolling. The Supreme Court explicitly rejected that possibility in Arellano v. McDonough, while leaving open whether other remedial doctrines might still apply. This Essay traces the development of remedies in veterans’ law before and after Arellano and explores how the Federal Circuit’s decision in Taylor v. McDonough reframes the effective date issue as a constitutional question and thereby offers a new legal basis for addressing this long-standing limitation.
Author
Attorney Fellow, Emory University School of Law’s Volunteer Clinic for Veterans (2023 to 2025). The author thanks Charles Jessup, Jilian Barger, and C. James DeBetta for their research assistance, and extends special appreciation to Kirin Cheng-chi Chang for his inspiration and support.
Copyright 2025 by Xuting Zhang
Cite as: Xuting Zhang, Battling the Clock: Retroactive Remedies and Constitutional Rights in Veterans’ Benefits, 120 Nw. U. L. Rev. Online 90 (2025), https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1360&context=nulr_online.