Cleveland, Ohio, does a lot more to honor veterans than maintaining the Greater Cleveland Veterans’ Memorial.
Cleveland and Cuyahoga County, Ohio, have several resources available to provide healthcare and other benefits to veterans of the U.S. military, including the Cleveland Vet Center, the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the Cuyahoga County Veterans Service Commission. If you are a veteran living in the Cleveland area, then you may be wondering how you can qualify for the help they provide.
At the Stone Rose Law firm, our experienced attorneys help former servicemembers receive all the benefits they are entitled to, including initial and follow-on claims for Veterans Affairs (VA) monthly compensation. If you have recently left active duty military service and need help knowing what disability, healthcare, and other veterans benefits you can apply for, call us at (480) 498-8998 to speak with and schedule an appointment with one of our veterans’ benefits specialists.
If you have suffered an injury or disabling medical condition while serving in the military, you may qualify for VA disability benefits. Depending on how serious your service-connected disabilities are, you could receive up to 100% or total disability-based compensation.
In addition to monthly compensation, the VA makes many other kinds of benefits available to disabled veterans. Even if you receive a 0% disability rating with no monthly compensation payment, you may still be eligible for other valuable veterans’ services like medical benefits, VA educational benefits, mental health counseling, and even VA home loan eligibility.
The VA offers multiple ways for disabled veterans in Cleveland to file for VA disability claims benefits.
The easiest way is to file online. You can also submit your completed application to the Cleveland VA Regional Office by mail, fax, or in person.
When you submit your benefits claim to the VA, you must prove three things to receive disability compensation:
The VA uses multiple factors to determine if you are eligible for VA benefits.
Active duty service members typically only need proof of active military service. However, there are a few automatic disqualifiers, like servicemembers who received a dishonorable discharge or, in some cases, an other-than-honorable discharge. If you need help upgrading your military discharge, an experienced VA lawyer can help you appeal to your Discharge Review Board.
A disability is a current physical or mental illness or impairment that your active duty military service either caused or made worse.
VA benefits compensate veterans whose service-connected disability incapacitates them. Usually, the best way to show a disability is to provide medical records as official documentation.
Proving a service connection, or that one or more disabling events that happened to you while you were serving in the military, is the key to qualifying for disability compensation. Your service medical records and any post-service medical treatment records you have received will be essential elements of the evidence supporting your claim.
However, there are some medical conditions the VA considers presumed disabilities and do not require you to prove a connection to military service.
Some veterans’ disability claims are denied based on a lack of service connection. One of our VA disability attorneys at Stone Rose Law can help you gather all the documents and other support you need to clear this potential obstacle to your benefits claim approval.
Below are some other medical conditions that the VA will consider based on indirect and direct service connections.
A latent medical condition is a condition that existed before entering the military but was not disabling at that time. If a latent condition gets worse after you leave the service, the VA will consider whether something happened to you while serving to aggravate it.
Another way you can receive a service-connected disability is if it comes from a different disability that is service-connected.
For example, your doctor might diagnose you as having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) based on a traumatic event you experienced in service. If your PTSD treatment includes drugs that have led you to a Type 2 Diabetes condition, you may still be able to trace a secondary service connection by showing that the PTSD treatment caused your diabetes.
Another factor the VA will evaluate is whether your disability relates to your military service. They may deny your claim if your injury, illness, or disabling condition comes from doing something unrelated to a service-connected condition.
If the VA approves your initial or additional disability compensation claim, it will assign you a VA disability rating. Your rating will range from 0% (non-compensable) to 100%.
The VA calculates your disability based on the number of conditions you’re experiencing and the severity of your symptoms.
One of our Stone Rose Law VA lawyers can help prove the extent of your disability when you’re filing for veterans benefits. Our VA Disability Calculator can help you estimate how much you may receive in monthly disability payments if you have multiple disabilities.
Monthly disability compensation are payments given by the VA based on your combined disability rating. The higher your disability rating, the more you can receive.
The VA also matches your disability to a benefit amount based on the current year’s rates.
For 2024, the disability rating compensation for an individual veteran is as follows:
These monthly payments increase for disabled veterans with dependents.
As mentioned above, monthly compensation is only one kind of VA disability compensation that might be available to those with ratings higher than 0%. Some additional benefits include:
A Stone Rose Law veterans disability attorney can help you learn which ones may apply to you.
In addition to the federal veterans’ benefits that the VA provides, the Ohio Department of Veterans Services offers its own veterans’ benefits that Cleveland veterans may be eligible for. Eligibility for some benefits may depend on residency, military component, and Veteran disability status.
Here are some of the Ohio state benefits available to Cleveland veterans:
Some of these benefits may have specific eligibility requirements or application processes, and not all benefits may be available to all veterans. An experienced veterans disability benefits lawyer can help you determine which state veterans benefits you may be eligible to receive.
At Stone Rose Law, our VA disability lawyers begin with a systematic and methodical approach to your specific VA claim. After consultation with an accredited VA disability benefits attorney, our attorneys will obtain a copy of your VA claims file to review and look for:
If you have never applied for VA benefits, we will assist you at no cost in preparing and filing a claim. We will also monitor your claim, help you with preparing for C&P examinations, and advise you of any VA decisions as part of this free service.
The VA may initially deny a claim if they believe there is insufficient evidence of a service-connected disability or if they make a mistake internally during the initial processing.
Some of the most common problems we see in VA benefits claims include:
There are three ways to challenge a disability claim denial:
Appealing to the Board comes with its own set of choices and options. These include:
To present a convincing appeal to a denied veterans disability claim, you need to have a thorough understanding of VA regulations and procedures, how the VA applies them, and the time limit you must work within.
This is what a Stone Rose Law VA disability claim denial lawyer will do for you.
Appealing a claim denial is something we recommend you do with the extensive experience of a Stone Rose Law VA claims appeal attorney on your side. One of our experienced veterans’ appeals attorneys at Stone Rose Law can guide you through the veterans’ disability appeal process until the matter is resolved.
Our law firm is accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs to represent veterans and is admitted to practice VA disability law before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
If we win your appeal, we will charge a reasonable, one-time contingency fee based on your VA award.
If we are not successful with your appeal, you owe us nothing.
Going up against the Department of Veterans Affairs is never easy, but it is not something you should fear. This is especially true if you have legal help from a VA disability advocate.
Our legal team of veterans disability attorneys is dedicated to providing legal assistance to Cleveland veterans with disability claims for your service-connected disabilities. We have a proven track record of successfully representing many veteran clients with service-related benefits claims.
Contact us today to discuss how our law firm and our veterans lawyers can help you with your VA claim or appeal. Schedule a free case review with a veterans benefits lawyer at (480) 498-8998, or contact us online, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
