You served. Something that happened during that service is still affecting you. And the agency that owes you compensation for it has either said no, said not enough, or said nothing at all for a very long time.
Marc Whitehead & Associates handles veterans disability claims nationwide, at every stage from an initial claim through a decision review before the Board. This page is the starting point for all of it.
Send us your decision letter for a free review.
What Does a Veterans Disability Lawyer Do?
Builds the evidence VA needs to connect your condition to your service, then argues it under whichever review procedure your claim has reached.
Most veterans assume a claim is decided on whether their condition is real. It is not. It is decided on whether the file establishes three specific things, and whether anyone put them in front of the right decision-maker in the right form.
The Department of Veterans Affairs states the three elements plainly: a current physical or mental disability, an in-service event, injury, or disease, and a link between the two.
Most denied claims fail on the third one.
The link is the whole case
VA calls it a nexus. It is a medical opinion connecting what happened to you in service to what is wrong with you now, and it is the single most common thing missing from a denied file.
Your treating doctor may fully believe the connection exists and may never have been asked to write it down in the form VA can use. Our guide to nexus letters covers what makes one carry weight.
The standard is lower than veterans think
VA does not decide claims on the balance of probabilities the way a court would. The rule at 38 U.S.C. § 5107(b) is that when the positive and negative evidence are in approximate balance, the benefit of the doubt goes to the claimant.
A tie goes to the veteran. Getting the evidence to a tie is the work.
For a free legal consultation with a Disability lawyer serving Nationwide, call (800) 562-9830
Where Is Your Claim Right Now?
Four situations, four different problems. Find yours.
| Your situation | What actually needs to happen | Where to go |
|---|---|---|
| You have not filed yet | Build the evidence before filing, not after a denial | Keep reading, then call |
| Your claim was denied | Work out which review option fits, then meet the window | |
| You were granted, but the rating is too low | An increase request carries its own risk worth understanding first | |
| You cannot work at all because of service-connected conditions | You may be looking at TDIU rather than a higher percentage | |
| You already chose a review option and it failed | There is another step, and it is a different kind of proceeding |
Most veterans who call us are in row two or row three and believe they are in row one.
Nationwide Veterans Affairs Disability Benefits Claims Lawyer Near Me (800) 562-9830
What Are Your Options After a VA Decision?
Three, and VA calls them decision review options. They apply to any decision you disagree with, not only to an outright no, and choosing among them is the most consequential call in the whole process.
The VA decision reviews page sets out all three.
Higher-Level Review
A more senior reviewer takes a completely fresh look at the same evidence. The regulation at 38 C.F.R. § 3.2601 requires a review “giving no deference to the prior decision.”
The trade-off is absolute: no new evidence is allowed. This is the right route when the evidence already in your file supports the claim and the decision got it wrong.
Our page on Higher-Level Review covers when it fits and when it does not.
Supplemental Claim
The route for new evidence. The standard is “new and relevant,” and 38 C.F.R. § 3.2501 defines relevant evidence as information tending to prove or disprove a matter at issue, expressly including evidence that raises a theory of entitlement never previously addressed.
That last clause matters more than most veterans realise, and our page on the VA Supplemental Claim explains why.
Board Appeal
A Veterans Law Judge decides, rather than a reviewer at a regional office. There are three dockets to choose from and they are not interchangeable. Our page on the Board of Veterans Appeals walks through each.
Not sure which review option applies to you? Ask for a free review of your decision letter.
What Kinds of VA Claims Does the Firm Handle?
Representation across the life of a claim, from the evidence that goes in with a first filing to a decision review before the Board.
Initial claims. Where the file is built before a decision rather than argued after one, which is the cheapest point at which to get it right.
Rating decisions where the percentage does not match the condition. Including matters where the right answer is not a higher percentage at all.
Total disability based on individual unemployability. Where service-connected conditions prevent substantially gainful employment. Our page on TDIU covers the schedular and extraschedular routes.
Secondary service connection. Where a service-connected condition caused or aggravated something else. 38 C.F.R. § 3.310 covers both, and the aggravation half is consistently underused.
Presumptive claims. Including herbicide exposure, where service in covered locations during covered periods can establish exposure without proving it individually.
Mental health claims, including PTSD. Where the stressor evidence rules do a great deal of the work. Our page on VA PTSD disability claims covers them.
Claims already in a decision review. Higher-Level Review, Supplemental Claim, and appeals to the Board, including matters where the review lane chosen at the outset was the wrong one.
What Gets in the Way of a VA Claim?
Most claims that stall do so for a handful of recurring reasons: nothing in the file connects the condition to service, the records describe treatment rather than functional impact, or a required examination was missed. Our page on a denied VA disability claim works through each reason and what answers it.
Representation is largely about identifying which of those the file is missing, and doing it before a decision rather than after one.
What Happens at a VA Claim Exam?
VA schedules an examination, formally a compensation and pension examination, to determine service connection and severity. The VA claim exam page describes what it is.
Three things are worth knowing before you attend.
The examiner has not treated you and will not treat you again. They see you once. The report still carries substantial weight.
Describe your worst days, not your good ones. Veterans consistently understate, because minimising becomes a habit and because the instinct in a medical setting is to be stoic. The examination is not the place for it.
Missing it is more serious on some claims than others. See the rule above. Good cause exists and has to be raised.
How Does Representation Change a VA Claim?
By deciding what goes into the file and when, rather than reacting to what comes out of it.
Getting the C-file. The claims file contains the examination reports, the rating decisions, and the reasoning. Most veterans have never seen theirs.
Identifying which element failed. A claim denied for no nexus is a different problem from one denied on severity, and the evidence that answers each is different.
Developing the medical opinion. Not writing it. Law firms do not provide medical opinions. The work is knowing what an adequate opinion has to address and getting the right provider to address it.
Choosing the review option deliberately. Because the wrong choice can cost evidence, time, and back pay, and it is not always reversible.
Protecting the effective date. Which decides how far back the award reaches, and which is quietly lost more often than any other thing in this process.
Where Can You See the Firm’s VA Work?
On the case results pages, rather than summarised here. Our VA disability case results set out individual matters in full, including the procedural history and what changed the outcome.
Prior results are specific to the facts of each matter and do not predict the outcome of any other case.
What Conditions Can Be Service Connected?
Any condition caused by service, aggravated by service, or caused by another service-connected condition. The category is much wider than most veterans assume.
Direct service connection
The condition began in service or was made worse by it. 38 C.F.R. § 3.303 makes clear that a diagnosis reached after separation still qualifies where the evidence establishes the condition was incurred in service. Veterans routinely assume a late diagnosis closes the door. It does not.
Secondary service connection
A service-connected condition caused something else. Sleep apnea secondary to PTSD. Depression secondary to chronic pain. A knee injury that changed your gait and wrecked the other hip.
38 C.F.R. § 3.310 covers this, and it has two halves. Subsection (a) covers conditions proximately due to a service-connected disability. Subsection (b) covers aggravation, where a condition you already had was made worse by a service-connected one. The second half is the more neglected, and it is where a great many winnable claims sit unfiled.
Presumptive service connection
Where service in a particular place during a particular period establishes exposure, and specified conditions are then presumed connected to that exposure. Herbicide exposure is the most familiar example, and it reaches well beyond Vietnam. Our page on Agent Orange exposure claims explains how the two presumptions stack.
How Does VA Decide What Rating You Get?
By evaluating how the condition affects function, against criteria set out in a rating schedule, and then combining the results where there is more than one condition.
Three things about that process cause more confusion than anything else in VA disability.
Ratings are not additive. Two conditions do not simply sum. VA combines them using its own method, which is why veterans are frequently surprised by the result and assume an error where there is not one.
The rating reflects impairment, not diagnosis. Two veterans with the same condition can receive very different evaluations, because the criteria measure what the condition does to you rather than what it is called.
A rating can be reviewed later. Protections against reduction exist and they are stronger than most veterans think, but they are four separate mechanisms rather than one rule. 38 C.F.R. § 3.951 protects the percentage after a long enough period, 38 C.F.R. § 3.957 protects the service connection itself, and 38 C.F.R. § 3.344 requires VA to find improvement that is reasonably certain to be maintained under the ordinary conditions of life before reducing a stabilised rating.
We do not publish rating percentages or payment figures on this site. Both are adjusted and both go stale, and a stale figure on a benefits page can tell a veteran they do not qualify when they do.
When Is It Worth Getting a Lawyer Involved?
Earlier than most veterans do, and there are four situations where it changes the outcome rather than just the paperwork.
When the nexus is contested. If VA has said your condition is not related to service, the argument from here is medical and evidentiary, and it does not resolve by resubmitting the same records.
When you cannot work. Unemployability claims turn on vocational evidence as much as medical evidence, and vocational evidence is almost never in a claims file unless somebody put it there.
When the effective date is in play. Because the difference between two possible effective dates is often larger than the difference between two ratings.
When you are choosing a review option. The choice affects what evidence you can submit, who decides, and in some circumstances what your award reaches back to.
Ask for a free review of your decision letter.
Veterans Disability Questions
Do I need a lawyer for a VA claim, or is a VSO enough?
They do different jobs and both have a place. A veterans service organization representative helps you file, at no cost, and many are very good at it.
Where a case involves a contested nexus, a denial that has to be unpicked, unemployability, or a review-option choice with effective-date consequences, the work becomes evidentiary and strategic rather than procedural. Many veterans use a VSO to file and seek representation after a denial.
Can I switch representatives after I have already filed?
Yes. Veterans change representatives regularly, including after a denial and including part-way through a review. It involves appointing the new representative and revoking the prior appointment, and it does not restart your claim.
How long do VA claims take?
Longer than they should, and the honest answer is that it depends on the review option, the evidence, and the workload. What is worth knowing is that the wait is not empty time. It is the window in which the file can be developed, and most veterans spend it waiting rather than building. Our FAQ on how long VA claims take to go through covers the stages.
What if I was denied years ago and gave up?
That is one of the more common calls we take, and it is not automatically over. Depending on what happened and when, there may be a route back to the original claim rather than starting fresh, which matters enormously for back pay. It is worth having someone read the old decision rather than assuming.
Can my rating be increased?
Sometimes, and it is worth understanding the mechanism before you ask. Requesting an increase generally prompts VA to look again at the condition, and 38 C.F.R. § 3.327 provides for reexamination where evidence indicates a material change or that the current rating may be incorrect. That cuts both ways. Our post on requesting a rating increase covers it properly.
What does it cost to have a lawyer on a VA claim?
Attorney fees in VA matters are regulated. What may be charged, and at what point in a claim, is set by federal law rather than agreed between a firm and a client. We go through what that means for your specific case before you commit to anything, and reviewing your decision letter costs nothing.
Do I need a veterans disability lawyer, or can I file myself?
You can file yourself, and a veterans service organization representative will help you do it at no cost. Where a veterans disability lawyer changes the outcome rather than the paperwork is in four situations: a contested nexus, a claim where evidentiary rules that exist for your situation were never invoked, unemployability, and any decision where the effective date is in play.
Does it matter that my discharge was not honorable?
It can, and it is worth asking rather than assuming. Character of discharge affects eligibility for VA benefits, and there are processes for having a discharge reviewed or upgraded, and circumstances in which VA makes its own determination about whether service was under qualifying conditions. Veterans write themselves off on this point more often than the rules actually require.
Can I claim a condition I did not report while I was in?
Frequently yes. Under-reporting during service is the norm rather than the exception, and VA adjudicators know it. What the claim then needs is other evidence that the condition existed: contemporaneous records of any kind, statements from people who served with you, or a pattern in your later treatment history that a medical opinion can tie back. It is harder than a documented in-service diagnosis. It is not a bar.
The File Is the Case
Marc Whitehead, Disability Attorney
A VA claim is decided by people who will never meet you, working from a stack of paper assembled by other people, against rules that reward precision and punish delay.
None of that is a comment on whether you are actually disabled. It is a description of how the decision gets made.
Which means the useful question is not whether your condition is real. It is whether the file says the three things it has to say, and whether anyone is going to notice before the window closes.
Send us the decision letter. We will tell you which of the three elements it failed on, and what answering that would take.
Marc Whitehead & Associates. Free review of your VA decision.
Our Main Houston Office 403 Heights Blvd Houston, TX 77007 (713) 929-2856
Call or text (800) 562-9830 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form
