Most veterans don’t even think about talking to a VA disability attorney at first. After all the VA is there to help them, right? In fact, there are even laws and rules in place that say the VA is required to help you with your claim. Why would you pay someone when they do it for you free of charge?
But there’s a reason that veterans’ attorneys exist, and after dealing with the VA for a while, many veterans understand this all too well. Despite the law, there are many ways that the VA can get around or even blatantly ignore their responsibilities, and even when they are arguably behaving as they should, claims take forever. A typical claim in 2006 took more than 127 days for the VA to make a decision on it – up 11 days from just three years before!
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Unfortunately, current law doesn’t allow veterans to hire an attorney to represent them in their claim until after they are denied veterans claims and file a Notice of Disagreement. And this law only applies to Notices filed after June 22, 2007. If you’ve been fighting your case for longer – and sadly, many veterans have – the law says that you have one year to hire a lawyer after the final VA decision against your claim.
You Have a Year After a Negative Decision to Hire a VA Disability Attorney?
Well, that’s what the law says. Denied veterans claims, however, have to be appealed by the veteran within 120 days of the VA’s final decision. If you’re thinking that those two things don’t seem like they work together, you’re right. Basically, the one year law is useless – you have 120 days after the VA denies your claim to get representation and appeal their decision, which is not a lot of time.
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If you don’t seek out representation until after that 120-day window, all you can do is ask that the VA reconsider your claim. As you might imagine, it is rare for the VA to agree to this request, and if they do comply and come to the same conclusion, there is no way for you to appeal their decision. This is why it’s so important to act fast if you receive a final negative decision on your VA claim. The best way for a VA disability attorney to help you is to start acting on your behalf within those first 120 days.
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