hi I'm Brad Hennings a partner at Chisholm Chisholm and Kilpatrick and today we are coming
to you from our Houston Texas office I'm joined here by my colleague Dallas aguiar an accredited
claims agent at C ensus in this video we will be discussing tips and strategies on maximizing your
veterans disability benefits starting with a quick overview of the VA benefits process
veterans with disabling conditions related to their military service may be eligible
for compensation benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs to receive compensation or VA
disability benefits veterans first need to file a claim qualify for VA disability compensation
veterans must establish service connection for their condition VA grants service connection to
Veterans who have evidence that their disability is at least as likely is not connected to their
military service while there is more than one way to prove service connection it generally requires
the proof of three things the first being an in-service event injury or illness second a
current diagnosis by a medical professional and third a medical Nexus or link between the
in-service event injury or illness and current diagnosis so initial Claims can be filed using
VA form 21-526 easy there are four different ways to file this form or another claim form with VA
you could file online by using va.gov by mail by printing filling out and sending the form to
the Department of Veterans Affairs claims intake Center in person by bringing the completed form
to the nearest VA Regional Office and finally with a legal representative by completing the form with
the assistance of a veteran service organization or vso or a VA accredited attorney or agent
generally filing a VA claim online is the fastest and most convenient way to apply for disability
compensation electronic records can be processed using a variety of automated tools allowing VA to
complete certain tasks with greater speed and something the VA will typically require during
this process is a CMP exam CMP exams which is short for compensation and pension exams are
performed by a VA contracted provider the exams are used to confirm or deny service connection
and or establish the severity of a veteran's disability that's right Dallas since medical
evidence is crucial to a veteran's disability case CNP exams are provided by VA at no cost to
the veteran as part of va's Duty to assist as VA adjudicators put significant weight on CNP exams
when deciding claims veterans should always attend any scheduled CNP exams or reschedule
as soon as possible if they cannot and be sure to request a copy of their exam report
now that we've gone over a quick overview of the VA benefits process we will be discussing ways
to increase chances of a favorable decision and how to attain the highest deserved rating
one way to attain a higher rating is to file for secondary conditions a secondary service connected
disability is a disability that resulted from a condition that is already service connected and
in these claims providing a Nexus or link between a veteran's secondary disability to their already
service connected disability is extremely important the Nexus between your primary
disability and your secondary disability must be clearly established to be granted secondary
service connection for the claim to disability that's right Dallas now there's a number of
common secondary conditions including depression and anxiety peripheral neuropathy secondary to
diabetes hypertension secondary to PTSD and erectile dysfunction secondary to prostate
cancer among many others and to learn about others check out our website at cck-law.com
another way to attain a higher rating is to file for tbiu tdiu or total disability based
on individual unemployability is a VA benefit available to Veterans who are unable to work
due to their service-connected condition or conditions specifically it allows for veterans
to be compensated at va's 100 disability rate even if their combined scheduler rating does not equal
100 and there are two types of tbiu a veteran may be awarded scheduler and extra scheduler and we
have more extensive information about tdiu on our website this next tip may seem obvious but it's
incredibly important that veterans use the correct form or forms when filing a claim for disability
benefits VA has numerous forms veterans can use depending on the specific action they want to
take with their claim using the correct form avoids confusion on va's part and minimizes
delays definitely Brad and we see this all the time so it's super important to pay attention
to which form you are filing some common forms are VA form 21-526ez which is the application
for VA disability and compensation and related compensation benefits to apply for VA benefits
VA form 20-0995 the decision review request supplemental claim this is used to file a claim
that was previously denied it can also be used to continuously pursue a denied claim within a year
of your decision and there's also the VA form 21-8940 veterans applique station for increased
compensation based on unemployability this form is used when seeking tdiu benefits and VA form
21-4138 statement and supportive claim which can include lay evidence such as buddy statements to
support your claim we have a Blog on our website that covers the seven most important VA forms and
how to use them if you're interested check out cck-law.com blog and search seven most important
VA forms the next thing we wanted to discuss is submitting sufficient and relevant evidence
Gathering and submitting sufficient evidence is crucial to building a strong claim including all
possible evidence in your initial claim can reduce decision time as this means that VA will have all
the information it needs to make a decision some evidence veterans may want to submit include
medical records such as your private medical records in-service medical records reports from VA
medical centers and CMP exam results a veteran may also want to submit service records now VA should
obtain these records as part of their duty to assist but in case they're unable to locate your
service records you can submit your DD214 service medical records and service Personnel records
employment records are also important to include become a necessary piece of VA claim evidence if
a veteran is seeking entitlement to tdiu or an increased rating veterans can fill out VA form
21-4192 which is used by VA to gather information regarding a veterans past or current employment or
you can submit any record of disciplinary action or performance reports another thing to include
would be lay statements lay statements are written statements from a veteran family member friend or
co-worker that can be used to submit in support of a veterans claim they can be especially useful
to document and Report symptoms and frequency of symptoms of Veteran experiences to support a claim
for an increased rating buddy statements those written by a fellow service member on behalf of
Veteran filing the claim can be useful to corroborate an in-service event or injury
they can also be used to testify to observe level of impairment a disability causes veterans can use
VA form 21-10210 the lay slash witness statement form to submit these claims however it's important
to avoid including evidence that is not relevant to your claim doing so can make it difficult for
VA to locate the pertinent evidence that is most relevant to the claim to condition and this could
hurt your claim if you're interested in more information on evidence to provide along with
your VA claim visit our website at cck-law.com blog and search what evidence will the VA require
the next topic we want to discuss is how navigating the appeals process works if VA
denied a veteran's claim for disability benefits the veteran typically has one year from the date
of the rating decision to file an appeal this also ensures that their effective date remains in
place and a veteran's effective date is the date which VA uses as a start date to pay the veteran
disability benefits for their claim the effective date essentially determines how much the veteran
will be entitled to in retroactive benefits all claims decided after February 2019 are processed
under the AMA system AMA which is short for the appeals modernization Act is the law governing
va's appeals process since 2019. claimants seeking to appeal an unfavorable VA decision must choose
one of the following three review options which are also known as Lanes there's the higher level
review Lane in which a veteran is requesting a review of a current Claim by a senior VA employee
and there's the supplemental claim lien where a veteran can submit new and relevant evidence as
part of a supplemental claim and finally there's the notice of disagreement lien where a veteran
can file an appeal to the board of veterans Appeals now some what some of you might be
wondering is what happens if your appeal is denied if a veteran receives an unfavorable
result following their appeal in the AMA system they have the option to continue the appeal
if a veteran receives an unfavorable decision in the higher level review Lane they have one year to
file either a supplemental claim or a notice of disagreement and if a veteran receives an
unfavorable rating decision in the supplemental claim Lane you have one year to file an appeal
in any of the three available Lanes if a veteran receives an unfavorable Board of veterans appeals
decision they can either file a supplemental claim within one year or appeal to the court
of appeals for veterans claims the CABC within 120 days if a veteran receives an unfavorable
decision from the CABC they have up to one year to file a supplemental claim or 60 days to appeal
to the federal circuit the VA claims process can be confusing but it's important not to give up
on a claim even if the process seems endless or you've been denied veterans who feel they need
assistance should remember that help is available vso's accredited representatives and accredited
attorneys can assist with a claim or appeal absolutely Dallas the skilled team at cck has
recovered over one billion dollars in benefits for disabled veterans since 1999. we have extensive
experience advocating for veterans at all stages of the claims process including representing
clients at both the board of veterans appeals and before the court of appeals for veterans claims
contact us today for a free case evaluation to see if we can assist