Are You An Injured Veteran? Know Your Options For Help

Veterans Affairs (VA) disability exists as compensation for veterans who were injured, suffered worsened medical conditions, or otherwise affected by military service. It's designed to help veterans who have trouble transitioning to civilian life because of their conditions, but the conditions must be related to military service. If you're confused about your condition and not sure where to go, here are a few details to get you on the right track.

Put In A Claim No Matter What

The first thing to understand is that there's no penalty for filing a claim. You won't have to pay a penalty, get yelled at by the VA or suffer any kind of reprisals just for putting in a claim. The worse that can happen is getting a claim denial, which happens to veterans with absolutely legitimate conditions.

Your claim is an easy way to understand what the VA consider's a service-connected disability, as their answer will reflect what they thing of your condition at first glance. You can appeal as much as you want without reprisal after a denial, so the only real trouble is if you want to go through the effort of getting the benefits you deserve.

This is what stops fraudulent claims from going through. Fakers will either get tired of putting in a claim or learn to fake better, and you can simply figure out what to do next.

If Your Claim Is Related To Military Service

There are many levels of problems that veterans face because of their conditions. Some veterans are absolutely sure of their service-connection, either because they know exactly when they started hurting or can remember the incident that started the problem. Other veterans may not have noticed the problem until after leaving the military, but aren't sure.

Veterans don't need to have a mental debate over what to do next. If you suspect your condition as being military related at all, take your appeal to a personal injury attorney as soon as possible. Every VA decision or request for information comes with a document describing your right to appeal, which explains that you have one year from your denial to appeal. Get to an attorney before a year is up to make sure that your appeal is handled in a timely manner with as little legal resistance as possible. 

Although you know what happened to you better than anyone, an attorney is better at getting the evidence and crafting an argument that can hold up in the claim system. Leave the argument to them and give them all of the information you can; don't hold anything back, and don't tell them what can or can't happen. There's a lot of legal framework that you simply don't know about if you're not a lawyer.

Gather your records, write down anything you remember, and contact a personal injury attorney to get the appeal assistance you need. If it doesn't work out, you can still use the VA services for basic medical care and work with an attorney to find the true cause of your condition--as well as compensation elsewhere.