Legal Help for Veterans blog.
Medical Issues / Disability, News and Press
Congress has now passed legislation for wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans that would establish an unprecedented permanent program to support the caregivers of wounded warriors, improve health care for veterans in rural areas, help VA adapt to the needs of women veterans, and expand supportive services for homeless veterans. The President must sign the legislation. […]
READ MORE
Medical Issues / Disability
Do you read articles about veteran and military matters and wonder why is this news? You know, like the VA system is broken. No kidding. Or the cost of military health care (and veteran health care) is on the rise. Is that really news? We deal with veterans and the VA everyday, so I guess […]
READ MORE
Medical Issues / Disability, News and Press
By Jim Fausone We have dozens of Marine veterans ask each year about their exposure to toxic drinking water at Camp Lejeune. While the existence of the contaminated water is now well documented, the medical nexus to specific disabilities has not been accepted. Recently, VA recognized that ingestion of contaminated water could cause ratable disabilities. […]
READ MORE
News and Press
By Jim Fausone When final rules come out, VA will add three new presumptive illnesses due to Agent Orange exposure – Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease and B-cell leukemias. Over the next two years, VA expects 200,000 new claims for these illnesses. If you have any of these illnesses, submit a claim to VA now. […]
READ MORE
News and Press, Veterans Law
The US Supreme Court recently heard about how things operate in the VA world. Chief Justice Roberts was shocked when a government lawyer admitted the VA was wrong about 70% of the time. The discussion came up in a social security case where the Chief Justice learned the government was not substantially justified in the […]
READ MORE
GI Bill, Veterans Law
We are beginning to see veterans raise questions about the transferability of post-9/11 GI Bill benefits. This idea of transferability is one of the most requested benefit upgrades to DoD. Be careful, veterans cannot transfer post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits. The way the rules are interpreted only service members can transfer their GI Bill benefits. […]
READ MORE
Employment, News and Press
Veteran Job Website We just learned of a new site that may be of interest. The federal government has opened a new website concerning the employment of veterans with the Departments and agencies of the US government. The direct link is: https://www.fedshirevets.gov/. Good Luck!
READ MORE
News and Press
There are seven uniform services in this country. You can name five of them. The sixth is the U.S. Public Health Service, and the seventh is the NOAA Corps. The later uses the same rank as the Navy and the Coast Guard, but has no enlisted personnel. There are about 300 officers commissioned by the […]
READ MORE
PTSD
Randen Harvey was discharged from the Marines in November 2005 after serving two tours of duty in Iraq. Mr. Harvey returned home a shell of the person he once was—suffering from three psychiatric disabilities: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia, and Polysubstance Abuse. All were the direct result of his military service. […]
READ MORE
Mental Health
JAMES G. FAUSONE LEGAL HELP FOR VETERANS, PLLC Northville, Michigan The definition of insanity for purposes of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently became at issue in a VA compensation benefits case. Henry Gardner v Shinseki, US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (March 13, 2009). In that case, the VA used the wrong […]
READ MORE