Military Veterans' Lawyer Blog

First, fail to make a claim for a benefit. The VA is not responsible for any disability that you may have if you do not make a claim. No claim = no benefits. And no not filing a claim will not allow you to get 50 years of back pay worth millions as you were injured in Korea and have waited 50 years to file the claim.

To make a claim go to https://www.ebenefits.va.gov/ebenefits-portal/ebenefits.portal;EBEN_JSESSIONID=m1SvSLWJhPpWCm63hzmvhJpNgkTKvHGN2Cy955KbJ9SR2TnhDjTy!740092564!2104263516?_nfpb=true&_nfxr=false&_pageLabel=Apply and fill out a VA Form 526 (click apply for benefits), then click on Apply for Veterans Benefits at https://www.ebenefits.va.gov/ebenefits-portal/ebenefits.portal?_nfpb=true&_nfxr=false&_pageLabel=Vonapp.

Second, ignore any VA requests for information and only send back responses telling the VA how stupid they are. Yes people do this, and then expect the VA employee to help them.

Lay statements are any statements made by the veteran, family members, friends, neighbors, or service buddies who make an oral statement during a hearing, or make a written declaration or written statement (preferably an affidavit signed and notarized under oath) regarding the veterans disability.

Lay statements refer statements made by people lacking professional medical expertise, laypersons, or people who are not medical professionals, and therefore cannot make medical diagnosis or prove medical facts.

But as anyone knows there are many things that a lay person can observe, such as seeing the veteran bleeding, seeing the veteran injured, seeing the veteran walking with a limp, or describing the laypersons observations and so forth. This may even include stating a diagnosis a medical professional told the layperson. A layperson cannot provide a diagnosis of diabetes, but the layperson can document the diagnosis a medical provider stated to the veteran or the layperson.

Lay statements are useful to document events that a person who is not a medical provider observed regarding the veteran. These lay statements can fill in missing information. The more factual the statements the better.

The Federal Circuit in Jandreau v. Nicholson, 492 F.3d 1372 (Fed. Cir. 2007), stated there are times a lay person is competent to testify to a medical condition.

Jandreau held:

[l]ay evidence can be competent and sufficient to establish a diagnosis of a condition when (1) a lay person is competent to identify the medical condition, (2) the layperson is reporting a contemporaneous medical diagnosis, or (3) lay testimony describing symptoms at the time supports a later diagnosis by a medical professional.

If you have been denied a claim, and filed your first notice of disagreement (NOD) on or after June 20, 2007, please contact the Law Office of Robert B Goss, P.C. for assistance in appealing your denial. https://www.attorneyforveterans.com/
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MST is a polite way of describing a viscous attack and event — Rape.

38 U.S.C.S. § 1720D(d) defines Sexual trauma as: “psychological trauma, which in the judgment of a mental health professional employed by the [VA], resulted from a physical assault of a sexual nature, battery [touching] of a sexual nature, or sexual harassment.” “Sexual harassment” is defined as “repeated, unsolicited verbal or physical contact of a sexual nature which is threatening in character.”

The VA has been denying numerous MST claims for veterans, prior to hiring The Law Office of Robert B. Goss, P.C. https://www.attorneyforveterans.com. This is often due to the victim not reporting the MST.