VA Benefits: How to Establish Service-Connection for your VA benefits claim.
Over the next few days, a series of blog entries will cover the “Five Ways to Establish Service-Connection” for a disease, injury or other medical condition that is used as the basis of a veteran’s claim for VA benefits. Click on the underlined text below for more information on each topic. This post - and no post on this website - is legal advice, is not meant to be legal advice, and certainly does not serve as a substitute for legal advice. Information is power, and we are providing this information to give you, the veteran, some power. This information is not widely or easily accessible to Veterans. It is best to consult with a lawyer familiar with VA Disability claims and benefits or a Veterans Service Organization to examine your particular case.
The five ways are:
1) Direct Service Connection. While a direct service connection can be established in any number of ways, this means of establishing service connection usually means that there is clear evidence of a disability, an incident that occurred while the veteran was in service, and evidence of “linkage” between the two.
2) Pre-existing injury aggravated by time in service. In this type of claim, the veteran usually has some evidence that a condition existed before the veteran’s time in service (usually an entrance examination), accompanied by evidence of an incident occurring in-service and again, evidence of linkage between the two.
3) Service Connection by Legal Presumption. Certain conditions or diseases are presumed to be service connected. There are lists of these conditions and their presumptive periods. Most of these conditions must manifest to a degree of 10 percent of more within one year from the date of separation.
4) Secondary Service Connection. This type of service connection will occur when one disability is the result of another service-connected disability. One of the most famous cases is of a WW II veteran who was treated for tuberculosis with a medication known to cause hearing loss. In the Court of Appeals decision, the hearing loss was a disability with a secondary service connection.
5) Connection due to injury caused by treatment in the VA healthcare system. 38 U.S.C. 1151 states that if a veteran is injured because of VA hospitalization, treatment, rehab or therapy that is not the fault of the veteran, the injury is treated as service-connected.
These topics will be discussed more fully in the entries that follow. In the meantime, if you have any questions about whether or not your injury is service connected, you should consult with a VA Benefits Attorney or a Veteran’s Service Organization. The Attig Law Firm, PLLC, offers free 1/2 hour consultations to veterans seeking representation for their claim for disability benefits to the VA.
