hello thanks for tuning in to veterans legal lowdown my name is brad hennings and i'm joined by
christine clemens we're with chisholm chisholm and kilpatrick and we're here today to talk a little
bit about va uh unaccredited representatives we're going to explain how to spot these unaccredited
unaccredited va representatives and what to do as well as offer some tips on choosing the
right rep for you so what what does it mean to be accredited by the va
by veterans affairs so va accredited attorneys or representatives also sometimes known as
agents or claims agents are individuals recognized by va as legally authorized
and capable of assisting claimants in pursuit of benefits before the department of veterans affairs
so this accreditation program exists to ensure that veterans and family members receive adequate
informed representation throughout the va benefits claims and appeals process so va accredited
representatives can include attorneys accredited claims agents veterans service organizations such
as dav or state or county government entities you'll see this with the national county veterans
service officers or some of the state veterans organizations so christine let let's talk a little
bit about what you want to avoid when you're choosing a representative thanks brad yeah there
are several things that veterans should be on the lookout for when seeking a representative to help
with their va disability claim or appeal firstly don't work with unaccredited representatives
the law requires that an individual who's preparing presenting or prosecuting a claim
for benefits that they'd be accredited by va um you know this gets back to
what you were talking about that adequate informed representation
this is to ensure that the people who are assisting veterans through the process who are
giving them information who are consulting with them and advising them know what they're doing
you can search the va's office of the general counsel database that we call them the ogc to
find out if the person who wants to help you is accredited that can be found on the va's
website in the ogc section and we'll provide that information in the comments um you know be aware
of organizations that do not provide the names of individuals who can be checked in this database
all accredited advocates whether they're vfos attorneys or agents appear in this database
so you also want to understand when and how much you can be charged for these kinds of services
congress has determined who can charge veterans when advocates can enter into fee agreements
with claimants and how much they can be charged this is all legislated so specifically advocates
cannot charge to file an initial claim nor can they charge a fee on future benefits payments
so what advocates are allowed to charge on are typically are retroactive payments or lump sum
payments that a veteran can earn but never on a veteran's going forward benefits so if you
receive 500 a month from va benefits that you win an advocate cannot charge for the next six months
once you've won they can only charge if it take it took a year to to file your claim and win they
can only charge on what has been accumulated over that year so many of unaccredited representatives
state they do not charge for filing a claim and are merely consulting or coaching but they require
veterans to fight to sign contracts that will make them pay unregulated sums out of future benefits
some of them require banking information they ask you as a veteran or as a claimant to give
your bank information to them and many ask for login information to va websites
this is not good va regulations assert that fees taken from
retroactive benefits which are 20 or less are presumed reasonable while fees that exceed 33
and a third percent are presumed to be unreasonable so what this means is anywhere
typically you can be charged anywhere from 20 to 33 and a 30 percent on retroactive benefits
there are representatives that will represent you for for no money as well so anywhere from 0 to 33
and a third is within the bounds of the law but only on retroactive benefits christine yeah and
brad you you touched on this a little bit um but i think it's also important that people avoid
representatives that ask for access to personal information and i want to really highlight that um
never provide your personal login information for ebenefits any other va system or your bank account
um you know we've seen some of these um there are some groups out there that will do this and
they will access a veteran's file and when the veteran doesn't want to work with them
any longer they're still accessing the veterans file because they have that login information
it's it's a real security issue for for veterans and it makes it difficult to get out of those
those business relationships that that are not helping the veteran
so you know it's important to know that accredited individuals will have access to the information
they need to assist you once you have your signed power of attorney and they should not ask for
log information frankly they won't need it they will have access to the assist to appropriately
represent um to appropriately represent you um unaccredited individuals by contrast can't get
that same access that accredited individuals can and so they'll commonly ask veterans to provide
them with access to va systems or really to the system the same system that the veteran
can access which doesn't have the same kind of information that someone representing you really
needs to have to be knowledgeable about how to how to best assist you throughout the life of the case
these unaccredited individuals will use this information additionally to determine when va has
granted a claim um because va does not represent them recognize them as a representative entitled
to receive the information directly and a lot of them will use that information to then follow up
and um and request payment um for the the work that they have done so if you find that you um
you've encountered an unaccredited representative or you find that the person who you've been
working with is an unaccredited representative you can you can report them there are multiple
ways to file complaints against organizations or unaccredited individuals if you believe
that you a veteran or if you believe a claimant has been charged outside of the statutory scheme
you can start by contacting any of the following organizations or offices
including the va's office of the general counsel the ogc i mentioned earlier
va states that its accreditation complaint program is only intended to discipline
accredited individuals who fail to meet va standards of conduct they do not exercise
jurisdiction over unaccredited individuals who charge veterans outside the statutory scheme
but you can inform va of your concerns by emailing the ogc accreditation mailbox and that is
ogt accreditation mailbox at va.gov that information is also on va's web website on on
that ogc page you can also contact the va's office of the inspector general the oig the office of the
inspector general provides independent oversight over the operations of the department of veterans
affairs so if you report unlawful activity to va ogc and receive no response or an unfavorable
response consider reporting the matter to oig um they can be reached by telephone at 800 495
or you can also find them online on va's website and we will provide that information in the
comments brad thanks christine so christine describes some of the folks at the department
of veterans affairs you can contact but as you can imagine the department of veterans affairs
is not in the business of protecting consumers per se they're in the business of of trying to
assist veterans and claimants and their family members and so another route you can go and one
that may be more effective frankly at times is to talk to the federal
trade commission it's the ftc one part of the federal trade commission's mission is to protect
consumers from unfair and deceptive practices in the marketplace and we certainly maintain that a
number of these unaccredited representatives are engaging in this kind of behavior
so you can come you can complaint you can file a complaint at https reportfraud.ftc.gov
go there and that will give you an area to report the fraud you can also go to your own
state's attorney general so that you the state that you live in the state attorney general is
the top attorney in the state and serves as the people's lawyer for the state for
example in louisiana the louisiana state attorney general recently obtained a permanent injunction
against a va benefit consulting and management business operating without va accreditation so
that's a great place you can go as well within your own state and finally you can go to your
state consumer protection agency each state has a consumer protection agency to protect
against fraudulent business practices and you can find your respective state agency at www.usa.gov
state dash consumer and we'll we'll put all of these uh different
urls all these different web addresses in the comments so you can find um people to report to
so in closing and you know do you have anything else to add on this topic christine
so christine is muted at the moment we will give her a second to unmute thank you brad um we do
have a number of um videos that we've done on this issue on our website we have some shorter
ones and some longer ones and so if anyone has any questions they're wondering what to look for
we do have more information on our website um i think you know we've also provided those resources
so so i think that's really helpful but also just trust your instincts if something feels like it's
a little bit off ask questions um check to make sure the person you're working with is accredited
i echo everything that christine has said really it's it's crucial to make sure your representative
is accredited whether it's an attorney or their service organization or an agent uh it's it's a
seal of some approval that that everyone's playing by the rules by va's rules and it's ultimately a
quality check to make sure that they are informed and responsive to their clients which are you
veterans and other claimants seeking to obtain benefits from the department of veterans affairs
additionally cck chisholm chisholm and kilpatrick that's us we have an experienced
team of accredited representatives and we may be able to assist you with your appeal
so please feel free to contact us to learn more we'd be happy to evaluate your case
but most importantly whoever you go with get somebody that's accredited
so christine thank you for for being part of this i'm uh brad hennings this is christine clemens
thanks for joining us at uh cck chisholm chisholm and kilpatrick please see us on
the web or on instagram twitter we're all over social media with various veterans benefits things
you