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Filing Clients VA Disability Claim or Appeal a Denial
Veterans and their families sacrifice greatly to serve their countries, and these sacrifices often include those related to their physical or mental health. If you have a medical condition that is related to your military service, you may be eligible for payments from the VA under VA disability benefits. Getting these claims approved can be a long and complex process, but working with an experienced attorney can make it easier and increase the chances of getting your claim approved.
Getting approved for veterans disability benefits can be a challenging experience. It can take months for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to review your case and make a decision, and if your claim is denied, you have to start the appeal process. Let the VA disability lawyers at West & Dunn help you by taking some of the stress and confusion out of applying for these benefits. Our team can help you with every aspect of filing a VA disability claim, from the initial paperwork to challenging a denial or requesting a Board Appeal.
What VA Benefits Are Available to Those With Service-Related Disabilities?
Disabled veterans who have physical or mental health conditions that were caused or worsened by their time in the military may be eligible for VA disability benefits. VA disability payments are made monthly and are not subject to taxes. Calculating how much you could receive in disability benefits is difficult, but in general, the payment amounts are based on how disabled you are. The VA rates the disability on a scale from 0% disabled to 100% disabled. The higher your disability rating, the more money you may be eligible for.
How Do You Apply for VA Disability Benefits?
To apply for VA disability compensation benefits, you will need to submit an application to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans claims need to include proof of your eligibility for benefits, including information about your military service and your medical condition. You will need to provide medical evidence and a letter from a medical professional, known as a nexus letter. You can also include supporting statements from those close to you or the people you served with to verify your claim.
The application can be filed online, by mail, or by fax. Or you have the option of bringing the paper form to the nearest VA regional office. Once your claim has been filed, it will be processed by the VA. This can take several months, and the average time for the initial decision to be made is around 5 months. If your claim is approved, you will receive information on when your payment will begin. If your claim is denied, you will have the option of filing an appeal.
What Are Some Common Reasons the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs May Deny a VA Disability Claim?
The VA claims process for disability benefits involves evaluating each claim to determine whether the person has a disability and how likely it is that the disability is directly connected to their service. Most reasons for denial of a VA disability claim center around these aspects. For example, a claim could be denied if the VA doesn’t believe that you have a specific diagnosis. A claim can be denied if the VA believes that your injury or condition was caused by something before or after your time of service. Claims can be denied because of lack of evidence or if the medical professional didn’t have enough experience with your condition.
Can I Appeal My Denial?
If you receive a letter of denial for your VA claim, you have the right to appeal the decision. It’s important to look over the paperwork that accompanies your letter of denial to ensure that you understand why your claim was denied and what you need to do if you want to challenge the decision. In most cases, you will have one year from the date of the denial decision to file your appeal. This can be done in one of three ways, depending on whether you intend to present new evidence for your claim and what your attorney suggests.
Supplemental Claim
If your VA disability claim was denied for lack of compelling evidence, you can file a supplemental claim to challenge the decision. This claim process lets you submit new evidence to support your disability claim. The new evidence can relate to any part of the claim. For example, it could be additional medical evidence to show that your condition fits the definition of disability or that it is linked to an event during your time of service.
Higher-Level Review
You may also request a higher-level review. This appeal option doesn’t involve submitting any new evidence. Instead, the higher-level reviewer looks over the same evidence you submitted with your original claim to see if an error was made during the initial review process. You have the option of requesting an informal conference as part of your higher-level review. This can be beneficial in some cases because your attorney is allowed to explain why they believe the initial decision was made in error and why the claim should be approved. Higher-level reviews are generally completed in less than 6 months, but requesting an informal conference could lengthen this estimate.
Board Appeal
Requesting a Board Appeal of your denial puts the claim before a Veterans Law Judge at the Board of Veterans Appeals. In some cases, you may be able to present additional evidence for your claim, but this isn’t required. A Board Appeal has three options. If you request a direct review, the decision is based on the same evidence as the initial claim and there is no hearing. This generally takes one year to complete. If you want to submit new evidence, you must do so within 3 months of requesting the Board Appeal, and this can lengthen the review time to around 18 months. The third option is to request a hearing. You may also present new evidence at the hearing. Requesting a hearing means that the appeal will likely take around two years to complete.
What Happens If I Don’t File an Appeal by the Deadline?
When you receive your notice of denial, it’s very important to pay attention to how much time you have to file an appeal. You have one year in most cases to file an appeal, but the clock starts on the date present on your denial letter — not the date you receive the denial in the mail.
If you miss the deadline to file an appeal, you may be able to reopen the claim. In general, you must have new evidence to present to do this, and the evidence must be enough that it would be considered unfair to you if the claim were not reopened. If you have questions about when your appeal needs to be filed or whether you will need to reopen your claim instead of appealing, speak with a VA disability lawyer.
Why Do I Need to See a Medical Professional?
It can seem like an extra hardship to have to make an appointment with a medical professional to be evaluated or to get a letter stating that they believe that your condition was caused by the events during your service, but it’s a requirement for VA disability benefits. For example, if you have post-traumatic stress disorder that is affecting your ability to work and quality of life, a mental health professional can conduct an assessment like the CAPS-5 to determine that you meet the diagnostic criteria and provide their medical opinion that the events during a deployment caused the condition.
You can choose to be seen at a VA clinic or hospital, but your primary care provider or private medical professional can also prepare this documentation for you. And in many cases, this is preferred because the VA believes that your normal health care providers have a more comprehensive understanding of your condition and how it affects your life. In addition to this, you will also need to have a mandatory compensation and pension exam, which is done by a VA health care provider.
Get the compensation you deserve through VA disability benefits when you work with the VA disability attorneys at West & Dunn. No matter what condition you’re dealing with, we can help you file a claim for disability benefits and fight back against wrongful denials. Call our office at 608-490-9449 to schedule your appointment and find out how our attorneys can help. We work with clients across the country on all types of VA disability benefits cases.