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Military Veterans' Lawyer Blog

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Filing Claims When Medical Evidence is Not Available to support your VA service-connected disability claim

Title 38 specifically, 38 U.S.C. § 5103A – Duty to Assist Claimants, establishes and the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims has held the threshold for VA’s duty to assist veterans with their claims is low. Subparagraph 5103A(a) states “the Secretary shall make reasonable efforts to assist a claimant in…

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Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act (PA) and Requests for Documents from VA Claim Folders to support a VA Claim

Both the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act (PA) give the public the right to request access to records held by Federal agencies. FOIA applies to all Federal agency records with access rights generally given to “any person.” However, one of the FOIA exemptions permits the withholding…

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Chronicity and Continuity for service-connected VA disability benefits nexus (connection)

Chronicity and Continuity Chronicity is established when the disability has been present since the in-service disease, injury, or event occurred. In other words, you have had this residual condition to one degree or another since the disability occurred and leaving active duty. The second element to prove a nexus is…

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Service-connected VA benefits requirements

Establishing entitlement to compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs for service connected disabilities requires the claimant meet three criteria. To receive a service-connected disability benefit a veteran must have suffered a disease, injury, or event that resulted in a disability while on active duty, or had a pre-existing condition…

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Review of Medical Records — Why you should Hire an Attorney for your VA benefits Claims

Handling of Medical Records The attorneys and the Firms experienced staff go through each and every page to determine what medical evidence will support the veteran’s claim in accordance with Federal Veterans Laws Rules and Regulations. My Firm and many other attorneys’ offices, employ medical professionals to do an independent…

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Expertise with Administrative Law and Court Rules — Why you should Hire an Attorney to represent you with a VA Benefits Claim

Expertise with Administrative Law and Court Rules Attorneys are licensed by State Bars and have fiduciary duties to their clients. Additionally, attorneys have professional ethical requirements to the Court and their clients. This means the attorney must expertly handle your case. Contrasting this with a VSO I once had an…

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Attorney Accountability — Why you should Hire an Attorney to represent you with a VA Benefits Claim

Attorneys Accountability VSOs are not accountable, if they miss a deadline or fail to handle your claim in a professional and thorough manner your claim and remedies against the VSO are very limited. Your VA benefits claim on the other hand may have lost its effective date, which will cost…

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Benefits of an Attorney — Why you should Hire an Attorney to represent you with a VA Benefits Claim

Benefits of an attorney Attorneys unlike Veteran Service Organizations (VSO) are accountable, have expertise with administrative law, court rules, and understand how to articulate a position with evidence to prove the claim. Once your case reaches the CAVC, this Court only reviews the record it has before the court. The…

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