As a community of 38,000 residents on the shore of Lake Michigan, Muskegon is understandably known as a city that appeals to fishers and boaters. It is also home to historical attractions, including Pere Marquette Beach, the largest free public beach on Lake Michigan’s eastern shore, Michigan’s Adventure, the state’s largest amusement park, and several historical naval vessels to tour.
Muskegon also has a community of U.S. military veterans, and the Muskegon County Department of Veterans Affairs provides them with extensive resources and support. This includes access to Veteran Service Officers and assistance with employment, transportation, medical assistance applications, a food bank, and more.
If you are a veteran living in or near Muskegon and need more assistance when applying for veterans’ disability benefits, Stone Rose Law can help. We have veterans’ disability attorneys who can help you with your initial claim application, a supplemental benefits claim, or appeal a claim denial.
If you need help claiming VA disability benefits, call us at (480) 498-8998 to speak with one of our Muskegon VA disability attorneys in a free case evaluation.
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 severe your service-connected disabilities are, you could receive up to 100% of 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 veterans in Muskegon with disabilities to file for VA disability claims benefits.
The easiest way is to file online. You can also submit your completed application to the Detroit VA Regional Office by mail, fax, or in person.
When you submit your benefits claim, you must prove three things to receive disability compensation:
The VA considers multiple factors to determine if you are eligible for VA benefits.
Active duty service members usually only need to prove active military service. However, there are a few automatic disqualifiers. These include 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 Stone Rose VA lawyer can help you appeal to your Discharge Review Board.
For VA benefits, a disability is a current physical or mental condition caused or worsened by your active duty military service.
VA benefits compensate if your service-connected disability incapacitates you. Ordinarily, the best way to show you have a disability is to provide medical records as official documentation.
To qualify for disability compensation, you must prove a service connection or that one or more disabling events occurred during your military service. Your service medical records and post-service medical treatment records will be crucial in supporting your claim for a direct service connection.
Note that some medical conditions, such as Agent Orange exposure or Gulf War Syndrome, are considered presumed disabilities and do not require proof od military service connection.
Some veterans’ disability claims are denied due to lack of evidence. One of our Muskegon VA disability attorneys at Stone Rose Law can help you gather all the documentation you need to clear this potential obstacle to your benefits claim approval.
Below are other medical conditions that the VA will consider based on indirect service connections.
A latent medical condition is a condition you had before entering the military but was not disabling at that time. If a latent condition worsens after you leave the service, the VA will investigate to determine 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 separate, direct service-connected disability.
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 weight gain and a resultant 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. The VA may deny your claim if your injury, illness, or disabling condition comes from doing something unrelated to a service-connected condition, like engaging in illegal behavior.
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% (total disability).
The VA calculates your disability based on the number of disabling conditions you are experiencing (most veterans suffer from more than one) 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.
The VA provides monthly disability compensation based on your single or 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 disability rates. Every year, the VA adjusts disability compensation rates based on the cost-of-living adjustment that the Social Security Administration applies for Social Security compensation.
For 2024, the disability rating compensation for an individual veteran is as follows:
These monthly payments increase if you are a disabled veteran with dependent parents, spouse, or children.
As mentioned above, monthly compensation is only one kind of VA disability compensation available to those with ratings higher than 0%. Some additional benefits include:
A Stone Rose Law Muskegon veterans’ disability attorney can help you learn which additional benefits may apply to you.
If the VA approves your disability benefits claim, you might qualify for the following VA assistance.
These are payments the VA makes to you, the amount of which depends on your combined disability rating.
Veterans with low incomes who are permanently and totally disabled or are 65 and older may be eligible for a type of monetary support known as a Disability Pension.
To qualify for this benefit, you must have 90 days or more of active military service, at least one day during a period of war.
You can receive additional compensation benefits if you have a spouse, dependent children, or a parent or both parents who depend on you to take care of them. These benefits come in the form of Special Monthly Compensation.
In some situations, your dependents can continue to receive VA benefits after you pass on, including coverage of burial costs and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation for your survivors.
There are many unique VA benefits you might be eligible for. For example, depending on your needs, you may receive additional VA benefits like compensation if you cannot find or keep substantially gainful employment or compensation for costs if you need hospital or convalescent care.
In other situations, the VA can provide allowances for transportation and clothing.
These are only some of the special benefits the VA offers. A Stone Rose Muskegon Veterans’ disability attorney can help you learn which ones may apply to you.
The VA supports veterans with more than just compensation. Even if your disability rating is 0%, you can still benefit from other Veterans’ health services through the VA healthcare system.
VA medical benefits include:
Vet Centers provide counseling, outreach, and referral services to combat veterans and their families. Services include individual and group counseling in areas such as post-traumatic stress, alcohol and drug assessment, and suicide prevention referrals. All services at these VA facilities are free and confidential.
A 24-hour Vet Center hotline is also available by dialing 877-WAR-VETS (877-927-8387). The call center is for veterans and their families to talk about their combat experience or other issues they face as they readjust to civilian life.
You can visit the Muskegon County Veterans Affairs Center here:
1903 Marquette Suite A101
Muskegon, MI 49442
Phone: 231-724-7143
The mailing address for the center is:
165 E Apple Avenue
Suite 201
Muskegon, MI 49442
Additionally, the VA maintains an outpatient clinic in Muskegon at the following address:
Muskegon VA Outpatient Clinic
2734 E Apple Ave
Muskegon, Michigan 49442
Phone: 231-798-4445
At Stone Rose Law, our Muskegon VA disability lawyers systematically approach 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 before, we will assist you in preparing and filing your benefits claim at no cost. We will also monitor your claim, help you prepare for compensation and pension (C&P) examinations, and advise you of any VA decisions as part of this free service.
The VA may initially deny a claim if your VA examiner concludes the evidence is insufficient to establish a service connection or if the VA makes a mistake internally during initial claims processing.
Some of the most common problems we see in VA benefits claims include:
There are three ways to challenge a VA disability claim denial:
Appealing to the Board of Veterans Affairs comes with its own set of choices and options. These include:
To present a convincing appeal to a denied veterans disability claim, you will need a thorough understanding of VA regulations and procedures, how the VA applies them, and the time limit you must work within after the VA decision.
This is what a Stone Rose Law VA disability claim denial lawyer will do for you.
We recommend you appeal a claim denial with the extensive experience of a Stone Rose Law VA claims appeal attorney fighting at your side. One of our veterans’ appeals attorneys can guide you through the VA appeals process until the matter is resolved and you receive the compensation and other benefits you deserve.
Our law firm is accredited by the Department of Veterans Affairs as representatives for veterans with VA benefit claims and is admitted to practice VA disability law before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
We will charge a reasonable, one-time contingency fee based on your VA award if we win your appeal. If we are not successful, you owe us nothing.
Going it alone when the VA has denied your benefits claim 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 skilled team of veterans’ disability attorneys has a proven track record in providing legal representation to Muskegon veterans with disability claims for your service-connected disabilities. We employ VA claim lawyers with years of experience and proven track records of successfully representing veteran clients with service-related benefits claims.
Contact us today to discuss how our law firm and veterans lawyers can help you with your VA claim or appeal. Schedule a free VA disability case evaluation with a Muskegon veterans benefits lawyer at (480) 498-8998, or contact us online.
