STEP 3: Begin Your Practice
Veterans Benefits Manual

2009 Edition

Editors:
Barton F. Stichman
Ronald B. Abrams

$135*
Softbound, 2,050 pages
ISBN 978-1-4224-6107-5

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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.

Written by practicing attorneys at the National Veterans Legal Services Program, this manual contains valuable insight and analysis from a team of experts at the forefront 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.

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.

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.


What's 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;
  
  
• 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;
  
  
• 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.

Summary Table of Contents
Ch 1 Introduction and how to use this manual

Part I: Disability benefits for veterans
Ch 2 Veterans basic eligibility for VA disability benefits
Ch 3 Compensation for veterans with service-connected disabilities
Ch 4 Compensation for injury or death caused by VA health care or other specified activities
Ch 5 Setting, increasing, or reducing a veteran’s service-connected disability rating
Ch 6 Pension for veterans with non-service connected disabilities

Part II: VA benefits for non-veterans
Ch 7 Benefits available to family members of living or deceased veterans

Part III: Rules affecting the amount of benefits paid
Ch 8 Effective dates for awards of benefits
Ch 9 Special issues for disability and death benefits

Part IV: VA health care and other benefits
Ch 10 VA health care
Ch 11 Other VA benefits

Part V: The VA claims adjudication process
Ch 12 Adjudication of original and reopened claims by VA regional offices
Ch 13 Board of Veterans’ Appeals
Ch 14 Common errors in final VA decisions denying benefits and the avenues available to correct them
Ch 15 Court review of VA decision making

Part VI: Advocacy on behalf of VA claimants
Ch 16 Reviewing VA Claims Files
Ch 17 Effective advocacy before the VA and researching veterans law
Ch 18 Attorney’s fees or agent’s fees paid by VA claimants or by the VA

Part VII: Correction of military records
Ch 19 Military records correction issues
Ch 20 Upgrading less than fully honorable discharges
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.

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