In this article, we’re focusing on buddy statements, which are also known as statements in support of a claim, lay evidence, or lay testimony.
These statements play a crucial role in supporting your claim for service connection and the disability benefits you deserve.
Buddy statements can be provided by friends, family, employers, coworkers, service members, or anybody who has physically and directly observed your condition or the events that led to your condition.
In the VA disability process, the opportunities to provide direct information to the VA are a little limited. Typically, communication is done via what I like to call a game of telephone.
You tell your examiner what’s going on, and your examiner may or may not write that down, and then your examiner takes their notes and sends them off to the VA.
This can lead to miscommunications, misunderstandings, or even outright misrepresentations of what you’ve said.
That’s why strong buddy statements and well-crafted lay statements are crucial to ensuring that your experiences are accurately presented to the VA.
So, what makes a good buddy or lay statement? Well, there are four major things that we want to remember.
Number one, be concise.
VA personnel are overburdened, overworked, and undertrained, and they have little time for a lengthy manifesto about everything under the sun.
I wish they did, but unfortunately, they don’t even have time to read a two-page statement, and most of the time they won’t.
So, keep your statement brief and focused on the relevant issues.
If your issue is proving a service connection, then focus on the in-service events and the continuity of your symptoms since the end of your service.
Is the issue your rating? Focus on the symptoms and the occupational and functional limitations those symptoms are causing.
Number two, stay coherent.
It can be very hard to organize your thoughts, especially when dealing with an emotional subject such as disability. But it’s important to address one issue at a time.
So, if you’re writing a statement about your back, hips, and knees, I like to suggest creating little headers.
First, create a header called “Back.” Then, talk only about your back.
Your next header is about your knees. Talk only about your knees.
Don’t bounce around and make it easy for the VA to follow.
Number three, avoid complaining about the VA.
Believe me, it is tempting to vent frustrations, but it’s unfortunately counterproductive.
People don’t really like it when you badmouth their coworkers.
Focus on presenting your case effectively. There’s no need to explain how happy or unhappy you are with how the VA has handled your case.
And number four, be relevant.
Concentrate on the key aspects:
Ensure that your statement directly addresses these points.
Buddy and lay statements can be powerful pieces of evidence when done thoughtfully, but we want to avoid cluttering our claims file with irrelevant or disorganized statements.
Instead, make sure each statement is purposeful and clear.
We recommend filing a lay statement or your own statement about how each condition is related to service and how it’s impacted you.
For each condition you are filing for, your statement should cover some basics.
What was the injury, event, illness, or disability in service that you believe caused or aggravated your condition?
Or what service-connected condition do you believe is causing or aggravating your condition?
What symptoms are you currently experiencing?
And provide a timeline of those symptoms. When did they start? Have they improved, worsened, or remained the same?
This can fill the continuity of symptomology gap that hurts many veterans. So think about this example.
We’ve got a veteran who hurt his back. He went to medical in 2004, and in 2024, he’s seeking a service connection for his back.
Like most veterans, he didn’t go to the doctor. He just sucked it up with Motrin, water, and by frequently changing his socks.
The VA will look at that and say something like, “Gee, there was a back injury in 2004, and he’s got a back issue in 2024. But there don’t seem to be any symptoms or issues in the 20 years between 2004 and 2024.”
Now, imagine that same veteran, but he submitted really good buddy statements that demonstrate the continuity of those back issues from 2004 through now. He explains that he doesn’t go to the doctor because he doesn’t have time because he has to work and support his family.
Folks, that’s a whole different ballgame now.
It’s hard to say it’s not the same issue when it’s been bothering him for 20 years straight.
But it’s easy if there’s no evidence of that in between.
And the last thing I’ll mention is to address any other potential causes or explain why there aren’t any.
The VA examiners love to speculate, and they love to say that a post-service event is a more likely cause of these conditions, even if there’s no evidence in the file about a post-service event.
If you’ve not done anything that could explain your disabilities—for example, you haven’t been in any car accidents, you don’t do any high-impact exercise, and you haven’t had any slips and falls—you should clearly state that.
Effective buddy and lay statements are crucial pieces of evidence, and we hope this helps you understand what to include and, more importantly, what to avoid for better success with your filings.
If you need any further assistance, don’t hesitate to call our team at (480) 498-8998. If you’re not one of our clients yet and want more information, give us a call. We’d love to talk to you.
