KNOWLEDGE BASE
Practical guides and updates from a veterans attorney who has been on both sides of the VA system.
VA rates the spine on forward flexion under the General Rating Formula at 38 C.F.R. § 4.71a, and that number stops at 40 percent without ankylosis. Radiculopathy is a separate rating under the nerve codes, and when it affects both legs the bilateral factor applies.
Read More →Tinnitus is rated at a flat 10 percent under 38 C.F.R. § 4.87, Diagnostic Code 6260, and that is the ceiling. VA proposed deleting the code in 2022 and has never finalized it. Hearing loss is rated separately, by a table, and a normal audiogram at separation does not defeat the claim.
Read More →The 2027 VA cost-of-living adjustment is 3.6 percent, effective December 1, 2026. It does not change your rating, and retroactive awards are paid at the rate in effect for each past month rather than the current one.
Read More →The bilateral factor at 38 C.F.R. § 4.26 adds 10 percent when both arms, both legs, or paired muscles are disabled. It is not the same condition on both sides, it is added rather than combined, and it can be the difference between 50 and 60 percent.
Read More →VA contractors perform the overwhelming majority of disability exams, and examination reports frequently show that only part of the record was reviewed. How to find that section of your own report, and what an incomplete review does to the opinion.
Read More →Diagnostic code 7101 is one of the few that writes medication into the criteria, and the 10 percent minimum turns on a history most veterans never documented. The rating is small. What hypertension opens is not.
Read More →Diagnostic Code 8100 turns on prostrating attacks and severe economic inadaptability, and the rating schedule defines neither term. What they actually mean, why severe economic inadaptability does not require unemployability, and what evidence settles the frequency.
Read More →Where a diagnostic code says nothing about medication, VA generally cannot use the improvement your medication produces to hold your rating down. Where the criteria do name it, it counts. Knowing which is which changes the exam.
Read More →A service-connected joint changes how you move, and the change travels. How the kinetic chain actually produces secondary conditions, what a medical opinion has to explain, and why the stronger claim is acceleration rather than sole cause.
Read More →The three Board dockets and what each one costs you in time, what actually happens at a hearing, and why the judge listening to you is not the person who denied your claim.
Read More →A bad paper discharge is not automatically a bar to VA benefits. VA runs its own review under 38 C.F.R. § 3.12, a 2024 amendment widened the compelling circumstances exception, and the Hagel and Kurta memos reshaped the separate upgrade track.
Read More →Two things survive a veteran's death: any claim that was pending, and a survivor's independent right to DIC. The routes to each, the deadline that governs both, and the remarriage rule almost nobody knows.
Read More →The Census Bureau released the 2025 poverty thresholds on September 15. For TDIU, the number that matters is the one-person overall figure, not the under-65 one.
Read More →Aid and attendance under SMC(l) reaches veterans who need regular help with ordinary daily activities. The regulation lists the factors, one of them is enough, and the person helping you can be your spouse.
Read More →A presumption supplies the link between your condition and your service. It does not supply the diagnosis or the qualifying service, and it is not the only way to win. What the PACT Act actually changed, and what still has to be proved.
Read More →Chronic pain from a service-connected condition produces depression, and everyone treats it as an understandable reaction rather than a ratable disability. What 38 C.F.R. § 3.310 requires, and the one situation where filing does not help.
Read More →Special monthly compensation is paid on top of your combined rating and never appears inside it. The two levels veterans qualify for most often without knowing, and how to find out whether you are one of them.
Read More →A proposal to reduce your rating is not a decision. Two deadlines run from the date on that letter, the burden belongs to VA rather than to you, and the step most veterans skip is the one that costs nothing.
Read More →A condition caused by the treatment for a service-connected disability is secondary to that disability. No fault required, and it does not matter who wrote the prescription. The claim veterans almost never file.
Read More →Pyramiding bars one thing: paying for the same symptom twice. It does not bar a second claim, separate ratings for separate impairments, or the secondary condition you have been holding off on filing.
Read More →The most common secondary denial says the apnea is from weight, not from service. VA's General Counsel addressed that in an opinion binding on every adjudicator. The four routes to a sleep apnea grant, and what each one requires.
Read More →VA routinely adjudicates secondary claims under the direct service connection framework and denies them for things 38 C.F.R. § 3.310 never asked about. How to find it in your own decision, and what to do about it.
Read More →38 C.F.R. § 3.310(b) service connects the worsening of a condition that has nothing to do with your service. What aggravation requires, how the baseline deduction works, and why these claims are so rarely filed.
Read More →Secondary service connection under 38 C.F.R. § 3.310 covers conditions caused or made worse by a disability VA already service connected. What the rule requires, what it does not, and where these claims get denied.
Read More →38 C.F.R. § 4.130 measures occupational and social impairment, not a symptom count. What each level actually requires, where the 50 and 70 percent line gets drawn, and the checklist error that keeps ratings low.
Read More →MST is rarely in a service record, and VA regulation accounts for that. What a marker is, where markers actually live, and the notice VA owes you before it denies.
Read More →An August 2026 VA OIG report estimates claims processors wrongly assigned 0 percent ratings for painful joints in 32,000 of 64,000 decisions, underpaying veterans at least $45 million. What 38 C.F.R. § 4.59 requires and what to check in your own decision.
Read More →What a VA medical opinion is, why your claim usually cannot be granted without one, how examiners actually write them, and the defects that make most of them legally inadequate.
Read More →Most of the work that decides a C&P exam happens before you walk in. What to prepare, what the examiner is actually measuring, and what an accredited attorney or agent does that you cannot easily do alone.
Read More →VA routinely dates a TDIU grant to the day it received the 21-8940. When unemployability was already raised in a pending claim, that date can be years too late.
Read More →When a service-connected condition gets worse, VA can pay you from up to one year before you filed. Here is what that rule covers, what it does not, and why waiting costs money.
Read More →The three VA protection rules get repeated constantly and understood rarely. Here is what each one covers, what it does not, and when the clock starts.
Read More →A VA claim stays pending until decided or withdrawn. If yours was never adjudicated, the original filing date is still alive, no error required.
Read More →What clear and unmistakable error means in a VA claim, what qualifies as CUE, what doesn't, and how a CUE claim can move your effective date back decades.
Read More →When service records surface that existed all along, 38 C.F.R. § 3.156(c) makes VA reconsider the old claim, and your effective date can go back to it.
Read More →No entry in your service records isn't a bar to service connection. What the law actually requires, and how veterans prove an in-service injury without one.
Read More →VA recouped $2.44 billion in separation pay from 112,000+ veterans in a decade. How recoupment works, why the letters arrive late, and what's before Congress.
Read More →Sometimes VA can decide a claim without a C&P exam, sometimes it can't. The four-part test that separates a lawful denial from a remand.
Read More →A VA claim marked closed with no decision letter isn't a denial. What it usually means and how to get it moving without losing your effective date.
Read More →Your C&P exam isn't a formality, it's your evidence. How to prepare, what examiners look for, and what to do when the report gets something wrong.
Read More →Five common reasons VA ratings come in lower than the evidence supports, and the practical steps that get an under-rated condition re-evaluated.
Read More →TDIU pays at the 100% rate with a lower combined rating. Who qualifies under each path, what proves unemployability, and why claims get denied.
Read More →Your options after a VA denial: the three AMA lanes, the Board, the federal court above it, and the deadlines that protect your effective date.
Read More →How VA ratings actually work, why combining 40 + 20 + 10 doesn't give you 70, and what to do when the number doesn't match your condition.
Read More →Articles provide general information. For advice on your specific claim, schedule a free consultation.
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