Tracking Claim Folders, COVERS, VA Form 3025, File Charge Card

use the Control of Veterans Records System (COVERS) or VA Form 3025, File Charge Card to track the movement of each claims folder

M21-1MR, Part III, Subpart ii, Chapter 4, Section A
6. Control of Records, Continued

f. Maintaining Control of Records
Follow the steps in the table below to maintain control of records charged out of storage.

Step Action
1 Use either
+ COVERS, or
+ VA Form 3025.
2 Fill out the charge card to show the
+ mail routing symbol of the organizational element to where the folder was charged
+ type of mail or form number that caused the pulling of the folder
+ date the folder was charged out of the file bank, and
+ initials of the person who made the charge.

g. Requisitioning Individual Folders
To requisition individual folders, use either

* COVERS, or
* VA Form 70-3770, Requisition for Numbered Folder.

One of the traditional paper-based methods of keeping track of appeals at the Board was use of the Briefface folder. These Briefface folders traditionally reflected the status of the appeal as it traveled through the Board until an appeal was decided. Thereafter, the Briefface was removed from the claims folder before the folder was returned to the VA Regional Office
(VARO). The Briefface remained at BVA as a document in system 44VA01 until disposed of in accordance with procedures approved by the Archivist of the United States. However, since all the information contained in the Briefface is now tracked electronically, the Briefface
is obsolete. Therefore, the Board is discontinuing this method of collecting data. Brieffaces in use as of March 31, 2002, will be maintained in an offsite storage facility once the Board has
decided an appeal. They will be disposed of by shredding or burning after 18 months according to the timeline and procedural requirements of General Records Schedule 16, Item 7. The Representatives’ Fee Agreement Records System—VA , identified as 81VA01, was established in 1991 to allow the Board to monitor fee agreements between attorneys-at-law or accredited agents and claimants being represented before VA according to the provisions of 38 U.S.C. 5904. The information contained in this system includes paper copies of fee agreements and correspondence related to fee agreements and electronic information with regard to names and addresses of both parties to the agreements and VA identification numbers or social security
numbers. Since most of this information is already contained in VACOLS (44VA01), we believe that merging the two systems will obviate the need to retain 81VA01 and will eliminate
redundant data entry.
In addition, providing the information through VACOLS allows a VARO to
locate any existing fee agreement that requires withholding of a portion of the payment of past due benefits to a beneficiary. As of April 1, 2003, fee agreements and powers of attorney
received by the Board have been scanned and electronically available in VACOLS. Thus, VARO personnel no longer need to contact the Board in every instance where the question of fee
agreements arises and the Board need not create paper file folders to hold duplicate copies of fee agreements. The original fee agreement remains in the claimant’s file folder and the
electronically attached copy along with other pertinent data, becomes part of VACOLS.
The System Location notice has been updated to reflect the locations of the computer servers that house the system as well as VA sites where non-electronic records (e.g., tapes of hearings) are housed, as well as the address of the Board’s contractor