Can A Lawyer Charge Veteran For Adding Secondary Issues To Service Connected Issues?

The Department of Veterans Affairs pays a monthly do good, called disability compensation, to disabled veterans who incurred an injury or illness that can be associated with their war machine service.

The amount a veteran tin receive in disability benefits varies according to your disability rating, which can range from zero to 100% based on the number of dependents they are responsible for, the severity of the status, and other factors.

A 100% disability rating denotes a medical condition that is completely and totally disabling, leaving the private with no expectation of finding gainful employment.

Every bit of 2022, if a disabled veteran with a spouse and no children has a 100% VA disability rating, he or she would be entitled to a monthly inability bounty payment of $3,321.85 (tax-costless).

Even a much less severe medical condition that results in a lower disability rating of 40% would entitle them to $696.61 per month for as long as the service-related disability persists. As discussed above, monthly compensation for service members varies directly based on the disability rating they are assigned by the VA.

Then, if you take a service-related disabling medical status that qualifies for VA disability compensation, it'southward worthwhile to pursue it.

Nevertheless, with some weather, proving a connection to military service can be tricky. Additionally, some conditions are more easily diagnosed than others and can quality a veteran for a higher rating or increased eligibility.

Three Criteria Required for VA Disability Approval

To win your VA inability compensation claim, you must demonstrate three things:

a medical diagnosis,
a connection to active duty military service (nexus), and
medical evidence of recurring or persistent symptoms.

If you don't score on each of these criteria, yous won't get canonical for VA disability or bounty benefits.

Unremarkably Awarded Disability Compensation Claims

According to a contempo Veterans Administration report to Congress, the x nigh commonly awarded medical conditions that are getting canonical for benefits are every bit follows:

Tinnitus
Limitation of flexion (human knee)
Hearing loss
Lumbosacral or cervical strain (back and neck strains)
Limitation of arm motion
Full general scars
Limitation of ankle motion
PTSD
Migraines
Paralysis of the sciatic nerve

Of these, tinnitus was the runaway winner, with 157,152 newly-awarded claims, according to the 2018-2019 Veterans Benefits Administration's Study to Congress. The runner-up, Limitation of flexion in the knee, accounted for 99,467 new claims while hearing loss resulted in 76,102 new claims during the reporting flow.

VA Disability for Tinnitus

Tinnitus is better known every bit a "ringing in the ear" syndrome. Many veterans are familiar with it from firing weapons without hearing protection or being near explosions: It's routine to experience a high-pitched ringing in the ear for a few seconds after existence exposed to very loud noises.

f yous accept tinnitus, you hear sounds that don't be internally, and you lot hear them persistently, over long periods of fourth dimension. The sounds may include ringing, clicking, roaring, humming, or hissing. It can occur with ordinary age-related hearing loss.

The VA may pay benefits for tinnitus, but the highest rating you lot tin can receive for tinnitus solitary is x%. Inability compensation professionals regard tinnitus as a "low value" merits for this reason. But if you have other service-connected medical issues, yous may qualify for a higher disability rating, as VA doctors combine your tinnitus rating with other ratings.

However, tinnitus is among the easiest VA disability benefits to get canonical. If you accept an existing condition that has been proven to be service-connected, tinnitus can aid to increment your total disability rating, granting you additional compensation.

First, it'south subjective. There's no definitive test for it. Dissimilar other conditions that can only be approved if there is a good bargain of objective medical show for the claim, tinnitus is on the honor system. If you say you have tinnitus, it's impossible to disprove it with medical evidence solitary.

And then it'due south much easier for the disabled veteran to get a diagnosis of tinnitus, and meet the Veterans Assistants's first major criteria for qualifying for disability benefits.

Possible complications to tinnitus

The following conditions may contribute to your tinnitus problems:

Anxiety
Depression
Meniere's disease
Traumatic encephalon injuries (TBIs)
Hearing loss
Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Head and neck atmospheric condition

For case, high claret pressure (hypertension) can aggravate tinnitus, as can head and cervix conditions and traumatic encephalon injuries, or TBIs.

Tip: If you're already rated for one of these conditions, merely not for tinnitus, information technology may make sense to put an additional VA disability claim for tinnitus equally a secondary status. Because you've already proved to the VA'south satisfaction that you have 1 of these disabling medical conditions and that there is a service connexion to them, yous have a very high likelihood that your application for tinnitus benefits will go approved.

Obviously, most veterans have been exposed to loud noises while in the service – either in loud training and operational environments or by exposure to explosions and gunfire. For this reason, veterans are amongst the highest risk for tinnitus.

Mental Health Conditions and Most Common VA Inability Percentages

Not all scars are visible. Many veterans have pregnant service-connected mental health problems.

PTSD is perhaps the nearly well-known of them, but in that location are many others, including:

Depression
Anxiety
Somatic symptom disorder
Armed services sexual trauma

Disabling mental health conditions are generally regarded as "loftier-value" claims. This is considering mental health problems are much more likely than neurological, skin, auditory, or most musculoskeletal conditions to receive a disability rating of 30% or college. In fact, more than than xc percent of disabled veterans rated for a mental wellness status are rated at 30% or higher.

4 out of 10 veterans with a disabling mental health condition receive a rating of lxx% or higher.

This makes them much more lucrative to pursue than most other medical conditions: According to the 2018-2019 Veterans Benefits Administration Study to Congress, over 13% of disabled veterans with mental wellness conditions were assigned a 100% disability rating. Cardiovascular atmospheric condition, in contrast, only qualified disabled veterans for a inability rating of 100% simply 13% of the time. Respiratory diagnosis merely resulted in a 100% inability rating 1.ix% of the fourth dimension.

Additionally, mental health weather condition qualified the veteran for a 30% disability rating 23.seven% of the time, for a 50% disability rating 25.9 % of the fourth dimension, and for a 70% inability rating 28% of the time.

Over again, post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is quite subjective. There is no definitive examination for information technology, so information technology'southward an easy claim to assert, and 1 that'due south next to impossible for VA officials to disprove with medical evidence alone.

Secondary Service Connectedness for Mental Health

Tip:Many service-related medical weather condition can crusade or aggravate a mental health condition. And then if y'all're already rated for another condition, or because applying for VA disability bounty for some other issue, consider filing a claim for the accompanying mental health outcome.

For example, your tinnitus may cause you to be unable to sleep, or function during the twenty-four hours. This, in plough, could cause or aggravate low or anxiety. In this case, your secondary claim – depression or anxiety disorder – could well consequence in a more pregnant disability rating than your primary issue.

The aforementioned is true for service-connected back injuries, migraines, knee joint and ankle injuries, scars, and anything that causes chronic pain or disfigurement.

In recent years, the VA has responded to political pressure to be more than understanding of veterans presenting with PTSD and military machine sexual trauma. If this is relevant to yous, consider putting together your documentation and filing a claim.

Musculoskeletal conditions and VA Disability rating percentages

These include strains, sprains, arthritis, reduced flexion, and reduced functionality in artillery, legs, dorsum, and cervix. Most sometime infantry will not exist surprised to acquire that knee joint and ankle injuries were among the most unremarkably-canonical claims.

To be considered for disability benefits for a musculoskeletal disorder or injury, you'll desire to be able to show some persistent and recurring symptoms. Common symptoms of musculoskeletal injuries or disorders include:

painful move
limitation of flexion or reduced range of movement (ROM)
weakness/fatigue in the extremity
loss of power
loss of motion command or coordination

Once more, while musculoskeletal weather are assigned a VA disability rating of 20% or less more 90% of the time, you can also merits them equally a secondary condition.

Musculoskeletal bedevilment from other weather

Musculoskeletal bug tin can exist aggravated by any of these weather condition:

TBI
medication side effects
PTSD
Depression
Injuries in other areas of the body (forcing you to overcompensate).

If y'all are rated for whatever of these issues as a primary medical condition, you may be able to put in a VA disability application for a musculoskeletal issue. Depending on the circumstances, this could become you some other 10% to 20% added to your disability rating.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of these claims receive a VA disability rating of xx% or less.

Scars and VA inability benefits

The VA assigns a disability rating for scars, from 10% up to 80%. While the scarring has to be quite significant in order to get rated for VA disability bounty, it's usually a unproblematic matter to go qualifying scars approved. At that place'south ordinarily little incertitude about a military service nexus. Injuries incurred on active duty that are significant plenty to charge per unit inability bounty are nearly always documented in the military service tape.

Additionally, scar tissue can occasionally issue in reduced arm, leg, back, or cervix mobility, resulting in a qualifying secondary condition nether the musculoskeletal heading, above.

VA Disability Percentages for Presumptive Disorders

A presumptive disorder is one that the VA presumes to be service-connected, even if there's no specific evidence or chain of causation that they usually require to course a nexus with military service. A presumptive disorder is a term that the VA uses to depict medical conditions that were and then common among veterans in sure situations that they are considered undoubtedly to be due to active duty, exposure or service.

Agent Orangish Presumptions

For the vast majority of Vietnam War veterans, the VA considers the following weather to exist presumptive:

AL amyloidosis
B-cell leukemia
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Type 2 diabetes
Hodgkin's disease
Ischemic heart disease
Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
Parkinson's disease
Prostate cancer
Respiratory cancers
Soft-tissue sarcoma (not including osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, Kaposi'due south sarcoma, or mesothelioma)
Chloracne or another like acneform disease
Porphyria cutanea tarda

If yous served in Vietnam between Jan. ix, 1962, and May 7, 1975, and yous are diagnosed with whatsoever of these conditions, you don't have to show a service connection. Considering of widespread exposure to Agent Orange, the VA presumes that these conditions are service-connected. You have an excellent chance of getting these claims approved and earning a higher percentage rating according to VA math.

Y'all also have an splendid chance of getting secondary diagnoses approved for benefits, though you volition need to document those thoroughly.

The VA has defined a number of other conditions as presumptive for Gulf War veterans, Atomic veterans, and former prisoners of war. Come across this VA page for full details on presumptive weather.

Pct of Vets Claims Canonical

Per the VA'southward ain data, they written report 2018 as one of the most successful years for the VA'southward decision-making team. The number of veterans claims canonical in 2018 was effectually 35.75 percent. In that 35.75% , nineteen.61% were canonical with zero remand issues, and 16.14% were immune with at to the lowest degree one remand event.

If 2018 is any indication, less than one-half of service member'southward disability claims are approved. To be in the successful 35.75% of claims it is important to fully fill out your claims paperwork and provide as much documentation as possible.

Document to Increase Your VA Disability Pay

The more health care information you have on file when you lot file for a VA disability merits, the better. To maximize your chances of getting your claims approved and earning increased bounty rates, documentation is critical.

If you're all the same in the service, try to go your injuries or other disabling medical connections documented in your armed forces medical records. If you are out of the service, piece of work with your personal physician to diagnose your condition, and document the severity and persistency of your symptoms.

Also, stay in close touch with your comrades. When filing a claim, you may need one or more of them to file a "buddy letter" as a witness to the event or events that caused your disabling medical condition. In addition, a police force firm can assist you in completing your veterans disability claim or walk you through the appeals process.