I may need a lawyer to help with a VA claim issue. Anyone have recommendations in the DFW area? I'm already working with DAV, I may need more support.
Thanks.

It must be bad if you need lawyer involvement, care to elaborate? I've had a few issues with the VA but found them to be fairly straight forward if I followed their instructions.

Can you provide any details...My wife was a disability rating specialist for several years

harleyds2 said:

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Can you provide any details...My wife was a disability rating specialist for several years

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I've got questions. Maybe she knows the answer.
-What constitutes getting something "documented?" Like if someone just told their doc once that they had back pain, but never had a workup, is that enough?
-What is the separation physical used for, if anything, in the VA claims process?
-What if something is claimed on the separation physical, but is no where else in the record?
-What all medical records are sourced for evidence of issues? Like just what is in AHLTA? Inpatient records? What about the paper record? Or the online PHA (Periodic Health Assessment) or pre/post deployment health assessments?

Thanks

I'll tell you my experience...20 year retiree, 1 year in Vietnam, never used the VA for anything as I had private insurance. Had prostate cancer and it was removed by my Aggie doc, submitted a disability claim to the VA and they didn't accept any of my doc's records without confirming by a VA doc. Seemed strange to me but there you go. And the VA has some strange rules, for example I get 10% money for that MIA Prostate but a 0% rating. Makes absolutely no sense to me.

so documented means it was it your medical records prior to separation. Very difficult to ratings if there is nothing in medical records to back it up. somethimes you get a claim that is secondary to a claim you had in the service. meaning because this happened it led to another condition
the separation physical helps set the baseline for your initial disability if any
claims are being handled digitally more now with less personal involvement

bigtruckguy3500 said:

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harleyds2 said:

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Can you provide any details...My wife was a disability rating specialist for several years

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I've got questions. Maybe she knows the answer.
-What constitutes getting something "documented?" Like if someone just told their doc once that they had back pain, but never had a workup, is that enough?
Documented means it is in your records. Only had to be in there once.

-What is the separation physical used for, if anything, in the VA claims process?
This physical is only used by your branch of service to determine if you are good to ETS/Retire, or if you need to be put into the medical retirement process, which you do not want.

-What if something is claimed on the separation physical, but is no where else in the record?
It can be used as documentation, but will be looked at with a crooked eye by the VA doctor.

-What all medical records are sourced for evidence of issues? Like just what is in AHLTA? Inpatient records? What about the paper record? Or the online PHA (Periodic Health Assessment) or pre/post deployment health assessments?
Make sure you have your paper records if you came in prior to everything going to AHLTA and MEDPROS. Go to any VA hospital and ask them to print out/give you a disk with all your records that go back to AHLTA/MEDPROS. Your old paper records will not be in this batch of records, as they were not added when things went digital.
Thanks

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Read what I put in bold. Also, everything you claim will be looked at by a VA doctor when you do your VA scheduled visits. They will bring up all your claims, and then look in your digital records (and paper records once you have them scanned in) to see if you ever visited a doctor for that issue. My VA doc literally hit CONTROL+F and entered the claim and looked at anything that popped up. If it indeed popped up, he would ask me if it was still an issue and how it would keep me from gaining meaningful employment.

I also talked about a broken nose I got during PT, but it never made it into my records because the medics dealt with it there on the spot. He actually believed me and scheduled an X-ray to see if my nose had been broken. The X-ray said it had been broken at some time in the past, and the VA doctor signed off on it. They are not all out to get you.

Have had a couple of my shipmates who used the law firm of Chisholm Chisholm and Kilpatrick to fight the VA and they were very successful. One got 80% rating the other got 75%. Both could not say enough good things about them.

JuCo CH46 said:

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I may need a lawyer to help with a VA claim issue. Anyone have recommendations in the DFW area? I'm already working with DAV, I may need more support.
Thanks.

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Google VA Claims Insider

The law firms will take a portion and in some cases most of your back pay if you get a rating. There are a lot of them out there that are very shady and looking to abuse veterans, especially those who are older and don't know what they are owed.

In my experience going through the process myself and talking through it with various friends if the DAV or Marine Corps League can't help you then you are fighting an uphill battle. Either you don't have the documentation to support the rating or the documentation that is present needs to be disputed.