Legal Help for Veterans blog.
News and Press
Carol Ann Fausone Brigadier General (ret) Positive reports surfaced last year on the significant reduction of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) backlog in benefits claims – VA workers slashed the backlog by over half to 245,000. VA officials were optimistic on cutting that number to zero by the end of 2015…but now that appears […]
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News and Press
Post-9/11 veterans face a host of physical and emotional trauma, along a high rate of medication usage. Combined, these factors place young veterans at a much higher risk of dealing with sexual dysfunction. For couples, a healthy sexual relationship can be a source of joy and resilience throughout life. However, that relationship can become difficult […]
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News and Press, PTSD
Eric Calley, a Michigan veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), felt that the flight crew on his US Airways flight had been acting in an insensitive manner from the start, reports the Lansing State Journal. Before the flight even took off, crew members repeatedly informed other passengers that Calley had a medical disability when discussing […]
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News and Press, Veterans Law
Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and veterans disability recipients will see their benefits increase by 1.7 percent in 2015. The increase represents the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), which is automatically applied to Social Security benefits. Although benefits will increase slightly, the cost of living is also projected to increase. In particular, the USDA projects that […]
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Medical Issues / Disability, Mental Health, News and Press, PTSD
In a holiday season supposed to be filled with charity and good-will, people’s experience at the airport terminals at this time of year is the exact opposite of comfort and joy. And recently, US Airways had to apologize to a veteran for the way its flight attendants treated his service dog. Eric Calley, a Marine […]
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News and Press, Veterans Law
Many veterans have service-connected disabilities that render them unable to work, even if the veterans’ disabilities have not caused them to be rated 100 percent disabled by the Veterans Administration (VA). At VA, this status is known as Total Disability based on Individual Unemployability (TDIU), also referred to as individual unemployability. With this status, a […]
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News and Press
In 2012, Michigan had just six veterans treatment courts. Today, that number has more than tripled to twenty, and Michigan leads the country in the number of veterans treatment courts. These courts are a type of “problem-solving court,” which are courts tailored to a specific population of people or addressing a certain realm of issues. […]
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Employment, News and Press
Across the country, researchers and policymakers are trying to find new and better ways to support veterans returning home. In Michigan, one such program is making headlines: the Buddy to Buddy program, a peer support system designed to connect post-9/11 veterans to a host of resources. The Buddy to Buddy program was developed by the […]
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Employment, News and Press
Earlier this month, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee announced plans to open seven currently male-only, direct combat jobs to women by spring of 2016. While I commend the Air Force for this initiative, I first want to point out that women in our armed-forces have been in combat situations from the beginning. Whether as nurses […]
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News and Press
Over the past two years, there has been about a 60% spike in sexual assaults reported in the military, according to numbers coming from the Pentagon that have been reported to the Associated Press (AP). Officials report that there were almost 6,000 victims of reported assaults in 2014, compared with just over 5,500 last year. […]
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