Veterans Benefits Manual

2007 Edition

Editors:
Barton F. Stichman
Ronald B. Abrams

$130*
Softbound, 2,050 pages
ISBN 1-4224-4057-5

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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 2007 Edition

• An entirely new chapter discussing the process for obtaining a copy of, and interpreting the documents in a veteran’s VA claims file;
  
  
• How to take advantage of the new rules allowing attorneys and non-attorney “agents” to charge a fee to represent claimants before the VA; 
  
  
• Updated information on special VA benefits such as automobile and clothing allowances;
  
  
• Information on how remarried surviving spouses can keep their VA benefits;
  
  
• An explanation of the new rules that entitle veterans of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan to VA health care;
  
  
• How to obtain reimbursement for co-payments and other costs that a veteran has paid to VA while a disability compensation claim remains pending;
  
  
• Advice on how to obtain VA disability benefits based on the failure of VA physicians to obtain the veteran’s consent before performing a medical procedure;

• New information about entitlement to VA burial and other interment-related benefits;

• Advice on how obtaining VA pension plus aid and attendance benefits can help the children of veterans care for their elderly disabled parents;

• How to obtain increased monetary benefits based on new regulations that permit  concurrent receipt of military retired pay and VA disability compensation;

• New advice about how to maximize the evaluation of your client’s mental disability; and

• New advice on how to effectively fight a VA attempt to collect an overpayment

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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