Veterans Benefits Manual, 2009 Edition
This exhaustive manual is an indispensable guide for advocates who help veterans ...
Availability: In Stock
Publisher :National Veterans Legal Services Program
Format: 1 volume, softbound, 2,050 pages, replaced annually
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BOOK
ISBN: 9781422461075
2009
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This exhaustive manual is an indispensable guide for advocates who help veterans and their families obtain benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
User-friendly, well-indexed, and packed with practical information, it includes sample forms and briefs, flowcharts, checklists, citations to legal authorities, and other
documents designed to streamline the claims process and save you and your veteran client valuable time.
Written by practicing lawyers at the National Veterans Legal Services Program, this manual contains valuable insight and analysis from a team of experts on the front line of veterans law. Use their first-hand experience fighting for veterans' rights and their insider's view of the Department of Veterans Affairs to obtain the benefits your client earned.
The Veterans Benefits Manual contains dozens of effective, battle-tested advocacy tips for veterans and advocates along with all the latest developments in veterans law.
New in the 2009 Edition:
- New advice on what to do during the 19 months that it takes on average for VA to forward an appeal to the BVA after the filing of the Substantive Appeal;
- How to maximize the disability rating for traumatic brain injury (TBI) under the October 2008 VA disability rating schedule for TBI;
- The special language that advocates should now use to avoid malpractice when filing a claim for service connection -- in light of recent court decisions allowing VA to ignore disabilities that should be considered;
- A new section explaining the complex rules that exist for determining the appropriate effective date for TDIU as a result of recent favorable court decisions;
- Why it is now more difficult to obtain medical opinions from VA physicians and how to obtain a persuasive private medical opinion;
- How to take advantage of the new law that applies when a veteran dies while a claim is pending, so that VA quickly decides whether a surviving family member is entitled to the benefits the veteran had sought;
- An expanded analysis of Combat Related Special Compensation (CRSC) -- the program that allows some veterans to receive both military disability retirement payments and VA disability compensation;
- Discussion of the new VA rules making it easier for veterans diagnosed with PTSD in service to obtain service connection for PTSD;
- An analysis of the new VA disability rating schedule for scars;
- How to take advantage of the new law that makes it easier to obtain reimbursement for non-VA emergency treatment;
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How to determine if a veteran qualifies for free VA health care and medications under the enhanced health care program for combat veterans;
- An explanation of the new rights claimants have as a result of the recent scandal involving mass shredding of documents in VA claims files by VA employees;
- How frail, chronically ill veterans can qualify for free VA home care; and
- A detailed explanation of the steps attorneys must take to become accredited and maintain accreditation to represent VA claimants.
This book has everything you need to prepare for practice at the VA Regional Office, the Board of Veterans' Appeals and the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Go from zero to a high-level of competency with this complete practice guide.
Featured Social Security Disability Titles
Chapter 1: Introduction and how to use this manual
Part I: Disability Benefits for Veterans
Chapter 2: Veterans basic eligibility for VA disability benefits
Chapter 3: Compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities
Chapter 4: Compensation for injury or death caused by VA health care or other specified
activities
Chapter 5: Setting, increasing, or reducing a veteran's service-connected disability
rating
Chapter 6: Pension for veterans with non-service-connected disabilities
Part II: VA Benefits For Non-Veterans
Chapter 7: VA Benefits for Family Members
Part III: Rules Affecting the Amount of Benefits Paid
Chapter 8: Effective dates for awards of benefits
Chapter 9: Special issues for disability and death benefits
Part IV: VA Health Care and Other Benefits
Chapter 10: VA health care
Chapter 11: Other VA benefits
Part V: The VA Claims Adjudication Process
Chapter 12: Adjudication of original and reopened claims by VA Regional Offices
Chapter 13: Board of Veterans' Appeals
Chapter 14: Common errors in final VA decisions denying benefits and the avenues available to correct them
Chapter 15: Court review of VA decision-making
Part VI: Advocacy on Behalf of VA Claimants
Chapter 16: Reviewing VA Claims Files
Chapter 17: Effective advocacy before the VA and researching veterans law
Chapter 18: Attorney's and agent's fees paid by VA claimants or by the VA
Part VII: Correction of Military Records
Chapter 19: Military records correction issues
Chapter 20: Upgrading less than fully honorable discharges
07232004
Barton F. Stichman
Barton F. Stichman, Co-Director of the NVLSP and lead litigator for NVLSP, has earned over
$100 million in VA benefits for his clients over the last 27 years.
The National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) is a non-profit law firm that has
represented veterans for over 20 years.
Ronald B. Abrams
Ronald B. Abrams, is the Deputy Director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program,
and a 17-year VA insider. He is also the Editor of the national newsletter The Veterans
Advocate. Over the past 12 years he has trained thousands of veterans advocates.
The National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) is a non-profit law firm that has
represented veterans for over 20 years.
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