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Sometimes, making a Texas veterans disability benefits compensation claim can be fairly simple. As long as you have the time and the patience needed to understand and apply VA laws and regulations, gather all the right forms, and follow all their instructions, the VA benefits system does not require you to have a lawyer.
In other situations, however, problems can occur during the claim process that make it harder to receive what you deserve for your service-related disability, sometimes resulting in a full denial of your Texas benefits claim—this is when a Stone Rose Law Fort Worth VA disability lawyer can make all the difference.
Helping you prepare the strongest possible claim if you live in Texas, or to make the strongest possible appeal if the VA denies your claim, is how a Stone Rose Law Fort Worth VA disability attorney can provide you with effective legal assistance.
Call us at (480) 498-8998 to receive a free consultation, or contact us online to talk with a VA disability lawyer today about your Texas VA claims.
See more below how our expert Fort Worth VA disability attorneys can help you with your disability claims or claim denial appeal.
To be eligible for all applicable VA disability benefits in Fort Worth or anywhere else in Texas, you must meet the following three requirements:
The VA defines whether you are a veteran through criteria like how long you served in the military, the time period of your service, and the nature of your service discharge.
As a general rule, as long as you honorably completed your term of active duty service, or received a medical discharge, then you should qualify as a benefits-eligible Texas veteran service member.
You must have medical evidence to prove you are presently suffering from a disability. The VA rates disabilities from 0 to 100 percent. Your doctor, mental health counselor, or other qualified medical professional will make this disability determination for you.
To receive monthly compensation for your service-connected disability, your VA disability rating must be at least 10 percent. You can still receive some healthcare assistance benefits through the VA with a 0 percent disability rating, including medical benefits for physical health problems and mental health counseling.
You must be able to prove that an event happened to you while you were serving that caused the disability.
This is the most important factor that the VA will evaluate. The VA often denies Texas disability claims because of questions about whether the underlying injury, illness, or condition happened during the veteran’s term of service or was related to what the servicemember was doing while in service.
Sometimes, providing proof of your disability has a service connection is easy.
For example, if during your military service something happens to you, like a training accident, or you are injured in battle, or exposed to hazardous substances, then tracing a direct service connection is a matter of having your military personnel records and medical treatment records to supply the evidence you need.
In other cases, however, it can be less certain whether your disability is a service-connected one.
A latent condition is a medical condition that you have when you enter military service, but which has not yet become disabling. If your latent condition worsens after you leave the service, then the VA will consider whether something happened to you while serving to aggravate it.
If that is the case, then you may still qualify for disability benefits even though your service activity was not the original cause of your condition.
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) after leaving the service based on a traumatic event you experienced while in service. If your PTSD treatment includes drugs that have a side effect of contributing to significant weight gain, this additional weight could ultimately lead to you being diagnosed later on with Type 2 Diabetes.
In this instance, although your diabetic condition arose after your discharge and is not itself a symptom of PTSD, you could 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 if your disability is related to your military service. If your injury, illness, or disabling condition comes from doing something that has nothing to do with a service connected condition, this can lead to a VA denial of your claim.
For example, if you are injured during the commission of a crime, or your injury is the result of an untreated substance abuse behavior, these are acts that the VA will conclude have no connection with your military service.
Proving a service connection to your disability is something that the VA considers on a case-by-case basis. Your service medical records will be part of the claims evidence the VA will consider, along with any records of post-service medical treatment you have received.
The VA rejects many Texas veterans disability claims because the claims lack sufficient evidence to create a service connection. A Fort Worth VA disability lawyer, like one of our VA disability attorneys at Stone Rose Law, will help you to gather all the documents and other forms of support you need to clear this potential obstacle to your benefits claim approval.
If the VA approves your disability benefits claim, then depending on the nature and extent of your disabilities—most military veterans who have service-connected disabilities have more than one—you could qualify for the following kinds of VA assistance.
These are payments the VA makes directly to you. How much you receive in monthly benefits will depend on your combined disability rating. The higher your disability rating, the more you are able to receive.
If you have a spouse, dependent children, or one or both parents who depend on you to take care of them, then you can receive additional compensation benefits for them in Special Monthly Compensation for aid and attendance services they perform.
In some situations, your dependents can continue to receive monthly payment VA benefits after you pass on. These benefits include coverage of burial costs and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC benefits) for your surviving family members.
There are many kinds of special VA veteran benefits you might be eligible for. For example:
A Fort Worth veterans disability attorney can help you to learn which ones may apply to you.
The VA supports veterans with more than compensation amounts.
As we mentioned above, even if your disability rating is 0 percent, you can still receive other Veterans’ health services the VA offers through the Texas VA healthcare system.
The VA decides benefit amounts using a single or a combined disability rating, which is calculated to account for many kinds of common medical conditions.
These ratings range from 0 to 100 percent disability.
At 0 percent, you will not be eligible for monthly benefits, but you may still qualify for veterans’ healthcare assistance and other benefits.
As of 2024, the pay rates for VA disability benefits are:
These monthly payments increase for Texas disabled veterans with dependents.
For 2024, the VA has approved a 3.2 percent cost of living increase for the above disability payments. This is the same cost of living increase the Social Security Administration uses for Fort Worth Social Security disability benefits
The amount of VA disability benefits you can receive depends on your specific circumstances. You can use our VA Disability Calculator to get an estimate of what your disability benefit amounts can be.
One of our Stone Rose Law Fort Worth VA lawyers can help you prove the extent and degree of your disability to achieve the amount of disability compensation that you need.
Meeting the requirements to make a VA disability benefits claim can be simple in concept but difficult in practice. The VA is a large federal bureaucracy, and sometimes the VA benefit claims process does not go well.
Every year, the VA denies about one-third of Texas benefit claim applications. These claim denials are often because of mistakes veterans make when completing their benefits application packages.
Here are some of the common claim application problems the VA finds in denied claims applications:
In your free consultation with us, one of our Fort Worth Stone Rose VA disability attorneys will carefully explain the legal requirements with you to make sure your application for VA disability benefits gives the VA everything it needs to draw a favorable result for you. Your initial application will have all the required forms. It will be complete in its proof of your disability, present your case in detail, and be free of mistakes that could delay your application.
Our legal team makes it easy for the VA employees who decide on your claim to decide favorably for you, because we give them everything they need. This is the maximum benefits difference you can make for yourself by letting our Fort Worth VA disability veteran attorneys help you with filing a claim or making an appeal.
Your dedicated Stone Rose Fort Worth disability attorney will make sure your initial application makes the best case for you and does not inadvertently sabotage your claim with avoidable mistakes.
Most importantly, we provide many of our disability claim application services in a free case evaluation (see below).
If the VA denies your initial benefit claim or benefit adjustment claim, it could be that someone at the VA has committed an error.
For example, your exam reports can be overlooked, or someone can assign you the wrong disability rating for the severity of your condition.
Or sometimes, you can find yourself in a frustrating debate over whether your disability is service-connected.
In situations like these, the VA appeals process of arguing your case by yourself before an administrative law judge, like making a claim through the Board of Veterans Appeals, can be time consuming, frustrating, and confusing at the same time.
To present a compelling appeal to a denied veterans disability claim, it is extremely important for you 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 Fort Worth disability claim denial lawyer will do for you.
Our expert veterans attorneys at Stone Rose Law are VA disability claim advocates. They have many years of experience in helping veterans like you with their VA appeals, and they know how the VA appeals process works.
A Stone Rose Fort Worth veterans disability lawyer will know what goes into making the strongest and most persuasive possible appeal on your behalf, so you do not have to.
Our law firm is accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs. We are admitted to practice VA disability law before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. When you hire our law office to represent you, you can be confident that your disability appeals lawyer will have the legal expertise, be highly competent, and aggressively represent your claim throughout the VA appeals process.
If we win your appeal, we only charge a reasonable, one-time contingency fee from your award from the VA.
If we do not win your appeal, then you owe us nothing.
At Stone Rose Law, we are first and foremost VA disability advocates for veterans disability claims in Fort Worth and everywhere else in the state of Texas. We are board-certified VA claims lawyers who serve on behalf of Texas veterans.
Our Fort Worth veterans lawyers provide highly professional legal representation to military veterans, helping them through the application process to receive all the veterans disability benefits they are entitled to.
A Stone Rose disability lawyer can help you prepare your disability claim, monitor your claim status and consult with you before disability examinations — all at no cost to you.
If the VA denies your benefits claim, our VA benefits law firm will assign a VA disability appeals lawyer to help you pursue a VA appeal with the Board of Veterans Appeals while providing free representation on a contingency fee basis.
This means you won’t pay your VA lawyer any fees unless we win your appeal.
Our Fort Worth veterans disability attorneys give you affordable, high-quality veterans appeals legal help. We represent veterans and their VA claims throughout Texas.
For more information about how one of our VA disability lawyers can help you with your VA disability compensation claim or appeal, request a free consultation at (480) 498-8998. Or, if you prefer, you can reach us online to ask a question about veterans law, veterans disability benefits, or to set an appointment with one of our veterans lawyers for a free case evaluation.
Our Fort Worth disability lawyers represent clients with north Texas VA initial claims, supplemental claims, and denied VA disability appeals. We help veterans who seek assistance no matter where they live in the state.
If you are making an original claim or a supplemental claim, appealing a denied claim, or making any other kind of VA benefits claim, there is no reason why you should face the VA alone. Let us assist you with your claim, or fight for you on appeal.
Contact our Fort Worth office today for a free initial consultation or a free case review with a Fort Worth veterans disability lawyer, and get started with your VA claim or your VA court appeal.