Category: Disability Compensation

Disabilities can enter a person’s life in a variety of ways and at different times. Disabilities related to military experience can be particularly tricky to pinpoint because of the different environments a service member may encounter and the extreme circumstances they may have to face. Military personnel can experience the onset of a disability while […]

Last Tuesday the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit handed a major victory to Vietnam veterans who served offshore in Vietnam’s territorial waters. Since the late 1990s, the VA has excluded the group known as “Blue Water” veterans, who served offshore, from receiving a presumption of agent orange exposure, and thus a presumption of […]

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Attorney Ferah Ozbek, a fellow veteran, to discuss my VA benefits practice and PTSD. Farah served in the U.S. Air Force as a judge advocate for 22 years, attaining the rank of Colonel. She now runs the website MilitaryLawMatters.com, which matches clients with military law attorneys. She […]

Big changes are coming to the VA appeals process as a result of a new law, the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act of 2017, which became law on August 23, 2017. The new law restructures the current appeals process to address the massive backlog of veterans presently waiting for decisions on their appeals.

While traumatic stress from combat is as old as war itself, PTSD did not become an official psychological diagnosis until 1980. Psychological symptoms associated with PTSD are varied and may include persistent nightmares, intrusive thoughts, negative changes in mood, and heightened reactivity. According to new research presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s Sports Concussion […]

After a long wait, the Department of Veterans Affairs has finalized and released regulations that establish a presumption of service connection for certain conditions caused by contaminants in the water supply at the U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The amended regulations apply to veterans, former reservists, and former National Guard members who […]

This past November, the VA updated the portion of the M21-1 Manual that instructs VA raters how to process claims for evaluations of partial knee replacements. This update is a response to a decision by the Federal Circuit in Hudgens v. McDonald, which I wrote about in a previous post. In Hudgens, the Federal Circuit held that […]

The VA is offering new TBI exams to thousands of veterans who did not have their initial examination performed by either a psychiatrist, physiatrist, neurosurgeon, or neurologist. This action impacts more than 24,000 veterans and will ensure these veterans receive a proper initial TBI examination and a new rating decision. The VA is offering new […]

On May 18, 2016, in Hudgens v. McDonald, the Federal Circuit ruled that partial knee joint replacements qualify for ratings under Diagnostic Code (DC) 5055, which is the diagnostic code that grants a temporary 100% rating for the year following a knee joint replacement, and then a minimum 30% rating thereafter. This is a great outcome for veterans undergoing […]

Secretary McDonald recently revealed more details regarding VA’s plan to expand disability compensation eligibility to veterans who were exposed to contaminated water while stationed at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune from 1953 to 1987, including Reserve and National Guard personnel who would not normally be eligible for VA disability compensation benefits. The Department of Health and […]