VA Disability
Joseph M. Lyon is licensed to represent veterans for Veterans disability compensation. If you are a disabled veteran or a family member of a deceased veteran you may be eligible for veteran disability compensation.
VETERAN’S DISABILITY BENEFITS
The Lyon Firm and Joseph M. Lyon are committed to representing United States Veterans obtain veteran disability benefits. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) offers several major veteran disability benefits programs: (1) service-connected veteran disability compensation (compensation) and (2) non-service-connected veteran disability pension (pension). In 2008, more than $42 billion dollars was spent spent on veteran disability benefits programs, with more than 2,951,600 veterans receiving compensation benefits and 317,600 veterans receiving pension benefits.
If you are a veteran and are disabled, you may be eligible for compensation. Please consider some of the time frames discussed below and contact our office for a free consultation.
A. Service Connected Veteran Disability Compensation
In order to qualify for “service connected” veteran disability compensation, the veteran must provide “competent evidence” to satisfy the following requirements:
1. Veterans Status;
2. Existence of a medical diagnosis of current disability;
3. A connection between the veteran’s service and the disability;
4. Degree of disability;
5. Effective date of disability.
The VA also pays a form of compensation to surviving spouses, children, and parents of deceased veterans whose deaths were caused by service-connected conditions. This benefit is called dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC)
B. Non-Service Connected Disability Pension
Pension benefits are similar to supplemental social security income (SSI). To be eligible, the veteran must demonstrate: (1) wartime service, (2) low income, and (3) total and permanent disability. As of September 17, 2001, veterans aged sixty-five years and over are conclusively presumed to be permanently and totally disabled for pension purposes.
C. VA Disability Compensation Adjudication Process: VA Duties
The veteran does not have to obtain all of the evidence needed to prove eligibility for veterans disability compensation. The VA has a duty to assist the veteran in obtaining the evidence needed to win a veteran disability compensation claim. The VA Duties include:
1. The VA must notify a veteran of any information necessary to complete a veteran disability application, including any information and medical or lay evidence that is necessary to substantiate the veteran disability compensation claim.
2. The duty to notify the veteran includes identifying which information and evidence the claimant must provide, and which portion the Secretary will attempt to obtain
3. The VA must “make reasonable efforts to assist a claimant in obtaining evidence necessary to substantiate” the claim;
4. The VA must “make reasonable efforts to obtain relevant records (including private records)” that the claimant identifies and authorizes the VA to obtain;
5. The VA must obtain the claimant’s service medical records, other military records, records of relevant VA medical treatment, and other relevant records held by the Federal government;
6. The VA must provide a medical examination or obtain a medical opinion when one is necessary to make a decision on the claim.
7. The The VA and the Board of Veterans’ Appeals have a duty to give a sympathetic reading to a veteran’s filings and adjudicate all potential claims reasonably raised by the evidence of record.
8. The VA continues to have the duty to consider all legal theories raised by the record that may lead to a grant of the benefits requested, regardless of whether they are specifically raised by the claimant
9. The VA has the duty to consider the benefit of the doubt rule.
D. VA Disability Compensation Benefits Adjudication Process: Procedure
1. The veteran files the initial veterans disability compensation application. This is done individually with the assistance of the local veterans administration Regional Office. An attorney cannot assist with the initial application;
2. An initial decision is made and a notice of its decision is mailed to the claimant.The claimant may appeal within one-year from the date of the decision. An attorney may be retained a this level.
3. The appellate process is begun by filing a Notice of Disagreement (NOD) at the Regional Office.
4. After an NOD is filed, the Regional Office asks the claimant whether he or she desires a “de novo” review of the claim (that is, a new and complete review without giving any weight to the previous RO denial) by a Decision Review Officer (DRO).
5. If the claimant does not request a DRO review, or if DRO review is requested and the DRO does not grant the claim, the RO then mails a Statement of the Case (SOC). This statement is intended to explain the reasons for the RO’s denial.
6. The period within which to perfect an appeal to the BVA begins after the RO mails the SOC. An appeal is perfected by filing a timely Substantive Appeal, which is customarily filed on a special form (VA Form 9).
7. The period for filing the Substantive Appeal is within either sixty days from the date of the SOC or the remainder of the one-year period from the date of the Regional Office’s notice of its decision, whichever period ends later.
8. Once the Substantive Appeal is filed, the case is then transferred to the Board of Veteran’s Appeals which, after an opportunity for a hearing and presentation of additional evidence is afforded to the claimant, renders its decision.
