Julius Golz sought service connection for PTSD and argued that VA failed its duty to assist by not obtaining the full Social Security Administration records underlying a prior SSA disability award. The Board had before it the SSA decision, which showed disability based on back and leg pain from a car accident, but did not mention psychiatric problems. The Board concluded the SSA records were not relevant to the PTSD claim, and the Veterans Court affirmed. On appeal, the Federal Circuit held that 38 U.S.C. § 5103A and 38 C.F.R. § 3.159(c) require VA to obtain only relevant records, including SSA records, and that relevance means the records must relate to the claimed disability and have a reasonable possibility of helping substantiate the claim. The court rejected the argument that VA must obtain all SSA records in every case or examine them before making any relevance determination. Because the SSA award concerned an unrelated physical disability and there was no specific reason to believe the underlying records involved mental health evidence, the Board’s relevance determination was permissible and the Veterans Court correctly affirmed. The decision is important because it frames the duty to assist as robust but not boundless, and it gives advocates a practical relevance-based standard for requesting SSA records.

Under 38 U.S.C. § 5103A and 38 C.F.R. § 3.159(c), VA must obtain SSA records only if they are relevant to the claim and there is a reasonable possibility they could help substantiate it.

A claimant seeking SSA records should show why those records bear on the specific disability issue, not merely that SSA records exist.

Golz is the leading Federal Circuit authority limiting VA’s duty to obtain SSA records to material that is plausibly relevant to the benefit sought. It is frequently used to defend a Board decision declining to obtain an unrelated SSA file, and just as often by advocates to show why a clear nexus between SSA records and the claimed condition makes the duty to assist mandatory.

Duty to Assist Error [Claims Development Error]

A veteran appeals a PTSD denial and points to an SSA award based only on orthopedic injuries with no indication of psychiatric evidence. Under Golz, VA may decline to obtain the SSA file if there is no reasonable possibility the records relate to the PTSD claim.

Use Golz to argue against fishing expeditions for unrelated SSA records, or to distinguish cases where the SSA award, medical evidence, or disability theory clearly overlaps with the VA claim and therefore makes the records relevant.

38 U.S.C. § 5103A, 38 C.F.R. § 3.159(c), McGee v. Peake, Quartuccio v. Principi, Murincsak v. Derwinski, Clarkson v. Brown