A client of the Attig Law Firm recently prevailed in her claim for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) to the VA. What made this case interesting is that the VA has been denying the claim since the Veteran died in 1991.
The Veteran in this case passed away due to the medical conditions that resulted from his Agent Orange exposure as a Special Forces officer in the Vietnam War. Since 1991, the VA has been denying that there was a connection between the Veteran's death and his exposure to Agent Orange.
After the VA revised its regulations to allow for presumptive service-connection of Ischemic Heart Disease due to Agent Orange exposure, the Veteran's surviving spouse filed a request to reopen her claim for DIC. The VA continued to deny the claim.
In late 2011, she retained the Attig Law Firm to assist her in appealing the VA's denial. The Attig Law Firm, working with expert medical professionals and a very intelligent DRO from the Waco VA Regional Office, showed the VA that the Veteran's death was, in fact, due to Agent Orange Exposure.
Because the Veteran passed away in 1991, the old-DIC pay scales are used. The Surviving Spouse will receive a monthly annuity until her death (assuming she does not remarry), and will receive over $300,000 in past-due benefits.
This kind of result is not always achievable in every Veteran's Surviving Spouse case, and the Attig Law Firm's ability to recover past-due benefits from the VA depends on a lot of factors. It is not uncommon, however, for the survivor's of spouse of combat veterans to be denied substantial life-changing benefits from the VA.
If you are a surviving spouse of a combat veteran who died after military service, please contact the Attig Law Firm, to see if we can help on your claims for Accrued Benefits or DIC.
One thing that really helped this case was the DRO process - having an intelligent, informed and objective senior VA employee look at this case made all the difference in the world, and is one of the reasons that the Attig Law Firm finds the DRO process to be one of the best changes to the claims process in decades.
The DROs in Waco - who deny our client's appeals as frequently as they grant them - are typically some of the most intelligent, competent and informed DROs that this attorney has worked with around the nation.
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Chris Attig, an Accredited Veterans Benefits attorney and Founder of the Attig Law Firm, PLLC is responsible for the content of the site. The principal office of Attig Law Firm, PLLC, is located in Dallas, Texas. Chris Attig is NOT Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. - Please view our website disclaimer.
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Thank you for this post. It is most supportive since I am experiencing a similar situation with the passing of my husband on 10/10/13. This was the result of him having cirrhosis of the liver. Poison traveled throughout his body causing him to have a stroke at the brain and not recover. Alcohol became his medicine after he lost a best friend in infantry in Vietnam. He was denied all claims except a 20% for hearing loss.