Alvin Anthony Schall
How Judge Schall rules, drawn from 56 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Schall
Alvin Anthony Schall is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Appointed by President George H.W. Bush, Judge Schall received a commission on August 17, 1992. Judge Schall assumed senior status on October 5, 2009.
Judge Schall's practices and standing orders
The court's website lists no individual practices or standing orders of Judge Schall's own (checked October 11, 2026), so the court's local rules and general orders are the place to look (court page ↗).
Standing orders for every case in this court
Orders the court applies to all of its cases, whichever judge has them, as published on the court's website (checked October 11, 2026).
How Judge Schall decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
On obviousness he insists the prior art be analogous — reasonably pertinent to the problem the inventor faced — before it can be held against a claim; a non-analogous reference cannot support a rejection.
“A reference qualifies as prior art for an obviousness determination under § 103 only when it is analogous to the claimed invention.”
In veterans-benefits cases he treats a board's failure to decide a claim clearly presented to it as a reviewable decision, preventing an adjudicative omission from defeating appellate jurisdiction.
“the Board’s failure to decide a claim clearly presented to it constitutes a ‘decision’ of the Board, which vests the Veterans Court with jurisdiction.”
The veterans benefit-of-the-doubt rule does not eliminate evidence weighing: the board must assign probative value to competing evidence before deciding whether the record is approximately balanced.
“when conducting a benefit-of-the-doubt-rule analysis, as in other settings, the Board is required to assign probative value to the evidence.”
Procedural preferences
In Hutchison v. Merit Systems Protection Board, he held that the administrative judge abused her discretion by denying a hearing after the claimant showed a factual dispute over the timeliness of her appeal.
“When the AJ dismissed Juanita’s appeal without a hearing, the AJ deviated from the requirements and procedure set out in her order. Accordingly, the AJ abused her discretion in failing to hold a hearing on the timeliness issue.”
In Coalition for Common Sense in Government Procurement v. Secretary of Veterans Affairs, he held that the Dear Manufacturer letter was a substantive rule issued without the required procedures, set it aside, and remanded to the agency.
“We therefore grant the Coalition’s petition for review, set aside the Dear Manufacturer letter, and remand the matter to the VA for compliance with the procedures required by the APA.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“We affirm the court's determination of invalidity and do not address infringement.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the decision of the Court of Veterans Appeals affirming the BVA's denial of Collette's claim is vacated.”
“For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the decision of the Board dismissing Perez's appeal for lack of jurisdiction.”
“For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the judgment of the Court of International Trade.”
“The decision of the district court affirming the RO is therefore affirmed.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Court of Federal Claims is vacated.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the decision of the Board is affirmed.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the district court is affirmed.”
“Accordingly, we vacate the decision of the Court of Federal Claims and remand the case to the court for further proceedings.”
“The court’s ultimate determination under 35 U.S.C. § 285 is vacated and the case as a whole is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Court of Federal Claims is reversed.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Circuit judges do not carry a trial caseload; not enumerated.
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