Legal Help for Veterans blog.
Claims Processing, Medical Issues / Disability, News and Press, Veterans Law
by Kristina Derro The VA has recently agreed to review the cases of nearly 17,000 “Brown Water” Vietnam Era veterans who have claimed disabilities related to Agent Orange exposure. VA previously denied a number of these claims without properly determining whether they served in Vietnam’s inland waterways (“Brown Water”) or in other locations where they […]
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Claims Processing, News and Press, Veterans Law
by Jim Fausone Time is running out to apply for retroactive bonus pay for 145,000 military personnel who were forced to remain on duty beyond their original discharge date, following the September 11th attacks. Congress has approved back pay of $500 for each month of involuntary service; the average lump-sum due is between $3,500 […]
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News and Press
by Jim Fausone SGLI is a VA program that provides low cost group life insurance to members of the Military and Uniformed Services, including commissioned officers of the Public Health Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, cadets and midshipmen of the service academies. Members are automatically insured under Servicemembers Group Life Insurance (SGLI) for […]
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Claims Processing, News and Press, Veterans Law
by Jim Fausone Upon the death of a service member, his or her family is entitled to death benefits from service life insurance. The financial press recently broke the story that Prudential Financial did not pay the lump sum to the families as expected. Instead, Prudential Financial Inc. would withhold lump-sum payments of life insurance benefits […]
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Claims Processing, PTSD, Veterans Law
by Jim Fausone As many VA watchers know, VA adopted a new law “Relaxation of Evidentiary Standard for Establishing In Service Stressors in Claims for PTSD” dated July 13, 2010. We at Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC have received the first rating decision taking this law into account. The VA conceded the Vietnam Vet’s stressor […]
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Claims Processing, Medical Issues / Disability, Veterans Law
By Jim Fausone If you have a disability rating from VA, the first step is done. But you will want to get rated at 100% permanently disabled if appropriate. It is just one way that a disabled vet can take care of his family now and in the future. Without that designation, the vet’s family […]
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Mental Health, News and Press, PTSD, Veterans Law
by Jim Fausone We see soldiers discharged for or diagnosed with “personality disorder” all too often in our veteran disability practice. As a result, the veteran is not going to receive VA benefits. Personality disorder is a “preexisting condition” so there will be no grant of VA disability compensation. After an article in The Nation […]
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Claims Processing, News and Press, Veterans Law
By Jim Fausone We get asked a lot of questions and try to answer as many as possible by email. We have also provided answers to FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) on our website. You can also get answers on YOUTUBE. We are now posting short videos that answer common questions and explain some of the […]
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News and Press
by Kristina Derro An article in The Denver Post highlighted the recent award an Army veteran received for having a surgical clamp left in his chest after surgery at the Denver VA Medical Center—only $130,000. It is astounding as to how little an injury like that is actually worth in the eyes of the VA. […]
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Claims Processing
by Jim Fausone Our local VARO is representative of others around the country. Detroit is better than many from our experience. VA nationally reports its accuracy rate on disability claims of 83% so it makes errors 17% of the time. A recent VA IG report is troubling as Detroit had a 21% error rate. The VA IG found in Detroit: Management […]
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