STEP 3: Begin Your Practice
Veterans Benefits Manual

2011 Edition

Editors:
Barton F. Stichman
Ronald B. Abrams
Meg Bartley
Louis J. George

$140*
Softbound, 2,050 pages
ISBN 978-1-4224-8814-0

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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 2011 Edition

• A new section explaining how veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan can become entitled to disability compensation for undiagnosed illnesses, without the need to prove that the illnesses are related to service;
  
  
• A new section explaining the criteria and new VA procedures by which caregivers of veterans injured after September 11, 2001 can now receive monthly monetary payments and health care from the VA;
  
  
• An explanation of the recent Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims decision making it easier for veterans to reopen a previously denied claim with new and material evidence;
  
  
• An expanded set of advocacy tactics to use before the VA regional offices and the Board of Veterans' Appeals;
  
  
• New information regarding how a survivor can step into the shoes of a veteran to pursue the veteran's claim if the veteran dies while the claim is pending before VA or the Court;
  
  
• Advice regarding disability benefits for the diseases newly linked to Agent Orange (ischemic heart disease, Parkinson's disease, and chronic B-cell leukemias), including the errors VA is commonly making in assigning effective dates for these awards;
  
  
• An expanded analysis of the eligibility requirements for Combat Related Special Compensation (CRSC) - the program that provides additional monthly benefits to veterans entitled to both military disability retirement payments and VA disability compensation;
  
  
• A reorganized and expanded section identifying the most common VA errors that can be corrected by appealing to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims; and
  
  
• A detailed discussion of the circumstances under which a veteran can appeal to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims despite missing the 120-day period for filing an appeal.
  
  

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 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 Obtaining military records and information to help substantiate a claim
Ch 19 Attorney’s fees or agent’s fees paid by VA claimants or by the VA

Part VII: Correction of military records
Ch 20 Military records correction issues
Ch 21 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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