Obtaining the VA Benefits You Deserve
Liner Legal, LLC is dedicated to helping disabled veterans from all walks of life, including every branch of military service, obtain disability-related benefits from the government. How can we help you? While we can’t make the VA process your claim any faster, we can prepare you for what to expect every step of the way, and we can help make your claim as strong as possible.
Call 216-282-1773 or fill out our online questionnaire for a free consultation and more information on filing disability claims with the VA. In addition to sharing the details of your VA disability claim, please ask us about our special fee arrangements on social security disability claims, just for veterans who were discharged under other than dishonorable conditions.
Don’t Wait to Start the Application and Claims Process!
Because veterans’ disability benefits start accumulating on the date you file your claim, it is important to file an application as soon as possible. Waiting only reduces the benefits you will be awarded if you win your case later.
Liner Legal, LLC can evaluate your situation and help you complete the application process. If you have already been denied benefits — or have received too-low of a disability rating from the VA — we can effectively challenge those unfavorable decisions at every level of the appeals process. Last, if the VA ruled against you in a previous case, we can reopen that old case if that decision was based on a clear and unmistakable error, or there is new and material evidence to offer in support of your claim.
We are dedicated to helping disabled veterans from all branches of military service.
What Counts as a Service-Connected Disability?
Almost every injury, illness or condition suffered in connection with, or made worse during, military service can be considered “service connected.” It is not necessary that the condition is related to combat or military duties.
The criteria for service-connected disability are that there must be a new medical diagnosis and a nexus between the current diagnosis and any conditions or events that occurred during the time spent in the military. Certain types of physical and mental impairments are presumed to be service connected. Even if yours is not one of those, we know how to prove that you deserve the benefits you’re seeking and get the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to fully and fairly consider your claim.
Presumed Qualifications for Service-Connected Disability Benefits
The Veterans Affairs (VA) has streamlined the disability benefits approval process for certain groups of veterans who have been diagnosed with specific types of medical conditions.
U.S. military veterans with medical conditions that may be presumed to have been caused or aggravated by their service in the armed forces include:
- Veterans diagnosed with chronic diseases, such as arthritis, diabetes or hypertension, or with tropical diseases, such as cholera, dysentery, malaria or filariasis, within one year of release from active duty.
- Veterans diagnosed with ALS/Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) at any time after discharge or active duty with service of 90 days or more.
- Former prisoners of war diagnosed with any of a number of specified conditions (and resulting in a minimum 10 percent disability), including, psychosis, anxiety disorders, dysthymic disorder, post-traumatic osteoarthritis, heart disease, hypertensive vascular disease, stroke, chronic dysentery or irritable bowel syndrome.
- Vietnam veterans (service at any time from January 9, 1962 to May 7, 1975; does not include service in offshore waters) diagnosed with Agent Orange-related medical conditions such as Hodgkin’s disease, multiple myeloma, lung cancer, tracheal cancer, cancer of the larynx, cancer of the bronchus, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, prostate cancer, type 2 diabetes, chronic lymphocyctic leukemia, soft-tissue sarcoma (not mesothelioma, osteosarcoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma or chondrosarcoma) — and, if certain conditions are met, chloracne and porphyria cutanea tarda as well.
- Veterans exposed to ionizing radiation (in various ways or at specified locations) and diagnosed with any of approximately two dozen listed forms of cancer, including nearly every type of leukemia, bronchiolo–aveolar carcinoma, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and primary liver cancer (unless cirrhosis or hepatitis B is indicated).
- Gulf War veterans diagnosed with medically unexplained, chronic, multi-symptom illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia or irritable bowel syndrome (clusters of signs or symptoms must be present for at least six months; conditions must be at least 10 percent disabling; diagnoses must be made by December 31, 2011).