42 U.S.C. § 300aa–13 — Determination of eligibility and compensation

(a) General rule A petitioner gets compensation if the special master or court finds, based on the whole record, that: (A) the petitioner proved — by a preponderance of the evidence, meaning it is more likely than not — everything the petition needs to show under section 300aa–11(c)(1); and (B) it is not more likely than not that the illness, disability, injury, condition, or death came from a cause unrelated to the vaccine. This finding cannot rest on the petitioner's own claims alone — it needs medical records or medical opinion to back it up. "Factors unrelated to the administration of the vaccine" does not include any idiopathic, unexplained, unknown, hypothetical, or undocumentable cause. It may include things like infection, toxins, trauma (including birth trauma and related lack of oxygen), or metabolic problems that have no known link to the vaccine involved — but only where the evidence in the record shows that, in this particular case, that other cause was actually the main reason for the petitioner's illness, disability, injury, condition, or death. (b) Matters to be considered Along with all other relevant medical and scientific evidence in the record, the special master or court must consider any diagnosis, conclusion, medical judgment, or autopsy or coroner's report in the record about the cause and course of the injury, and the results of any diagnostic or evaluative tests, including their summaries and conclusions. None of this is automatically binding on the special master or court — in weighing it, the special master or court must consider the entire record and the full course of the injury, disability, illness, or condition up to the date of judgment. The special master or court may also find that the first symptoms of an injury actually occurred within the Vaccine Injury Table's time window, even though that symptom was not recorded, or was recorded as happening outside that window — but only if the evidence shows, by a preponderance, that the symptoms really did begin within the Table's time window. (c) "Record" defined For this section, "record" means the record built by the special masters of the United States Court of Federal Claims in a proceeding on a petition filed under section 300aa–11.