Veterans Affairs (VA) disability claims are a major part of transitioning to civilian life for many veterans. Especially in a time of war with many more combat veterans and demanding labor jobs going at full force, the number of claims can mean long wait times and a seemingly high frequency of denials. The VA knows that mistakes happen, so keep in mind that you can appeal as much as you want. If you want to get the benefits you deserve as soon as possible, take the time to understand why your claim could have been denied and how to push towards a faster approval.
Denials Left And Right, But Why?
The VA disability system exists to help veterans with legitimate conditions caused by military service. It doesn't matter if your injury is physical or mental; any injury, medical condition or ailment that can be written on paper can be claimed by a veteran as long as it happened during military service.
Although the VA has significant funding, you need to consider the amount of benefits that can be delivered to over a million veterans. The dollar amount of disability payments is different for each veteran, but you need to consider medical care and referrals as well. Fraud can quickly sabotage the VA's efforts and reduce the quality of service delivered to veterans who truly need help.
A legitimate claim could be caught up in the net of fraudulent claims, but don't take it personally. Fraudulent claims are treated no differently than legitimate claims that are missing information; if the paperwork isn't correct and your condition doesn't look valid, you don't qualify. If you want to qualify, simply try again with better evidence.
What does better evidence mean? In order to prove that your condition is worthy of compensation, you need to pass the service-connection test.
Service-Connection Is Key
Service-connection is the term that illustrates how your condition is related to the military, and needs to be supported by documentation. For example, you'll need to product medical record proof showing that you were shot and at a certain point during the military, or that you were exposed to some sort of dangerous substance.
Mental health conditions can be linked to specific events as well. If you can show that a specific event may have caused a certain mental or behavioral issue, a service-connection can be established. It's possible to link your entire military career as the issue, but you'll need professional opinion that can be tested and trusted by the VA.
You'll also need to show that you're still affected by the problem. Falling down stairs, being shot or having proof that you were in the area of a dangerous substance is only part of the equation; if you don't have a current problem that can be observed and linked to past reports, you may receive a denial or request for more information.
To build these connection or to discover hidden connections if you have no proof, you'll need a personal injury attorney. You may spend years searching for obscure legal references and examples of how you may have a problem that could have been discovered by a trained attorney within weeks or months.
It's an injury attorney's job to find evidence and develop information into something that the claim system can agree with. Instead of pushing through disabling circumstances on your own, get the appeal assistance of a personal injury attorney (like Norris, Gary G. Attorney) as soon as possible.
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