Hey veterans, Travis Studdard, veterans disability attorney here.
Today I want to talk to you about nexus which is really one of the most crucial aspects
to winning your VA disability claim and the one that most veterans overlook.
If you know a little bit about VA disability claims, you'll know that there's three things
that you have to prove in order to win.
First, you need an in-service event.
Second, you need a current disability and third, what we're going to talk about today,
you need nexus which is evidence that links that in-service event to the current disability
you have.
An obvious example of Nexus would be you have a severe leg injury in service that leads
to the amputation of that leg.
It's clear there's nothing else that has ever happened to that leg and all of those series
of events happened very quickly from injury to amputation.
Again, that's a claim that even the VA would probably grant service connection on.
But many times nexus is not that clear and if nexus is not clear, then there's a good
chance that VA is going to deny your claim.
Some examples of that where the waters are a little bit more muddy include disease cases.
If your disability is a disease, there can be multiple causes of that disease.
For example, cancer.
Yes, your cancer could be the result of chemical exposures or other environmental hazards you
experienced in service, but also cancer can be the result of hereditary or bad luck or
lifestyle choices or what have you, for instance smoking.
Again, those types of claims VA often times does deny.
How do you connect those?
Let me give you one more example other than a disease would be a back injury case.
A lot of times you have degenerative disc disease.
As we all age and get older, we experience some degeneration of the spine so VA may say
it's just because you're getting old when in fact you had a specific incident in service
that started the domino effect to where you're to the poor state of your back nowadays.
Again, nexus, it's a medical question.
Did this event that happened to you, is it connected to this current medical condition
that you have?
Medical questions require medical evidence and only medical professionals are qualified
to provide that medical evidence.
Again, you can’t establish nexus in your claim.
You're going to have to get your doctor to help do that for you unless presumptions apply
and don't overlook presumptions in your case.
They can be crucial to winning your VA disability claim.
The classic example, Vietnam veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides,
VA grants them a presumption that there is nexus between their exposure to those herbicides
and certain diseases such as Parkinson's, diabetes, certain cancers and that sort of
thing.
Presumptions can also apply to younger veterans.
There's Gulf War presumptions that apply.
Now with emerging science we have Camp Lejeune contaminated water cases and a list of diseases
that are being developed currently.
Nexus, very important the key to winning, use medical evidence or use a presumption
whichever way you can do it or use both.
I hope that helps.
Check out our other videos on how to win your VA disability claim.
Give this video a thumbs up and reach out to us if you have any questions or need help
with your claim.
Thank you.