Definition
A deadline promised to the person that states the maximum time, the authority, and the procedure for reversing a decision once it is challenged or found wrong. Its clock starts at the challenge or the finding, and time to reverse is measured against it. Reversal performance is a reliability measure, not an exception process. Contracts and vendor agreements often call this a reversal SLA; the house term is deadline, because it is owed to a person, not set as an internal target.
For example, a contract clause might require the provider to start human review within 24 hours of a valid reversal request, and to reverse or affirm the decision within 5 business days. If it misses either deadline, the person's access is restored in the interim and the provider owes service credits. Escalation runs from the operations lead to the risk director to an independent reviewer.
A decision object records what was decided and who owns it. A binding clock limits how long a decision can stay pending. A reversal deadline limits how long a wrong decision can stand. Together they turn “you can appeal” into “an appeal changes what the institution owes.”