38 U.S.C. § 7109
Section 7109 · Independent medical opinions
Amended 4 times on record
Applied in 35 court decisions — leading case Allday v. Brown (1995)
Most recently applied in Ghee v. McDonald (January 2016)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
(a) When, in the judgment of the Board, expert medical opinion, in addition to that available within the Department, is warranted by the medical complexity or controversy involved in an appeal case, the Board may secure an advisory medical opinion from one or more independent medical experts who are not employees of the Department.
(b) The Secretary shall make necessary arrangements with recognized medical schools, universities, or clinics to furnish such advisory medical opinions at the request of the Chairman of the Board. Any such arrangement shall provide that the actual selection of the expert or experts to give the advisory opinion in an individual case shall be made by an appropriate official of such institution.
(c) The Board shall furnish a claimant with notice that an advisory medical opinion has been requested under this section with respect to the claimant's case and shall furnish the claimant with a copy of such opinion when it is received by the Board.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1991—Pub. L. 102–40 renumbered section 4009 of this title as this section.
Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 102–83, §4(a)(3), (4), substituted “Department” for “Veterans’ Administration” in two places.
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 102–83, §4(b)(1), (2)(E), substituted “Secretary” for “Administrator”.
1988—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 100–687, §103(b)(1), substituted “Board may” for “Board is authorized to”.
Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 100–687, §103(b)(2), substituted “Any such arrangement shall” for “Such arrangement will”, and “an individual case shall” for “any individual case will”.
Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 100–687, §103(b)(3), added subsec. (c).
Effective Date of 1988 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 100–687 effective Sept. 1, 1989, see section 401(a) of Pub. L. 100–687, set out as an Effective Date note under section 7251 of this title.
Effective Date
Section effective Jan. 1, 1963, see section 4 of Pub. L. 87–671, set out as an Effective Date of 1962 Amendment note under section 5701 of this title.
Cross References
Disclosure of papers and documents relating to claims to independent medical experts, see section 5701 of this title.