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Thanks for the encouraging words ~ I worked in an organization 'way back when' that had a BACKLOG PROBLEM regarding 'appeals'.

We succeeded in whittling it down to nothing in short order by bringing in a new manager who'd listen to us about how to do all these things.

First thing we did was to quit talking about a 'backlog' ~ a couple of weeks with no discussion using that word we were able to figure out what we were doing for a business and focus on fixing the parts.

Then we cleared the inactive files. Too many government offices charged with thousands of administrative due process appeals imagine they must keep everything ~ they don't! We checked our own and no one who'd ever won an appeal from us came back and complained about it.

NO ONE!

That meant all the files related to such an appeal could be sent away to federal gub'mnt outer gehenna ~ the federal records centers!

Gave us room for more chairs, a few more tables ~ to spread out stuff ~ appeals are messy and you may be looking at a dozen pieces of paper and a large rule book simultaneously.

Took us a couple of weeks more to edge out the nonperforming managers ~ we actually found guys in the field offices who thought it was their job to back customers into filing appeals which they could then deny ~ which the customers would forward on to us.

You just never want others at a higher level to think you act that way, but there you had it and we moved those guys aside.

Pitchburg ~ you know it by another name ~ guy retired. They found appeals in his desk crammed in under the drawers going back years.

Somehow I just know the appeals at the field offices in VA are in roughly the same state of affairs today as ours were 20 years ago ~ and for the same reasons. Actually, you could have talked to Julius Caesar, or maybe Sargon of Akkad about this situation and they'd been right up to date.

BTW, you don't do it once ~ it must be repeated. Else the backlog will find reason to recreate itself!