Lawyer Up?

[usdart]

I made inital contact with Woods and Woods and explained my situation briefly. They will be contacting me when they can.

What is the average fee for these cases?

Will they work on it for part of the Compensation I may get?

Does it speed up or slow down the process?

I just want to have my ducks in a row if possible when we speak.

[gRada]

My advice is to get an attorney, but in the interest of full disclosure, I am an attorney.

You can have an attorney represent you now, he/she just has to do it for free at this point because attorneys are statutorily prohibited from charging fees to veterans for assisting on initial claims. Attorneys are permitted to charge up to a 33.3% contingency fee (the norm in personal injury cases) of any back pay won on appeal, but the VA will only direct-pay the attorney if the contingency fee is 20% or less, which is why you see most attorneys contingency fee set at 20%. Anything over that and the attorney has to collect the fee directly from the veteran, which I think what Mags1023 is describing.

In my opinion, the benefit of having an attorney this early on is that they will (should) be there as your resource to guide you through your initial claim. They should be prepping you for your C&P exams, letting you know what the symptoms for each step in rating is, answering any questions you have, helping you write your statement of support, tracking down records, etc. Ideally, you should never have a reason to come on here and ask a question. The result is that you could end up with a better prepared initial claim and get what you want sooner rather than on appeal.* It's also nice to have someone there who's been through the process and can monitor and control everything.

As for your question about speeding the process up, the answer is mixed. First, attorneys don't have any special power or status to speed up the VA's process, but you might see "speedier" results coming in the form of a quicker decision because of a well prepared claim. Of course results like that vary greatly between attorneys as everyone is different.

*(People will say that it's not in an attorneys interest to "win" an initial claim, but I would argue that an attorney who who purposely submits a weak initial claim in the hope of getting paid on appeal is committing malpractice and would be subject to disbarment and revocation of VA accreditation.)

[usdart]

Looking at my paperwork the VA did deny Hearing loss.

At my C&P 2 weeks ago with the Hearing Doc, the Doc said I had 'Substantial Hearing loss which is cosistant with long term Sinusitis'. He said he would write the report that way.

Since I am rated for service connected Sinusitus at 10% now I am thinking they have to address the Hearing Loss?

Or, do I have to file a new claim based on new evidence?

[john999]

The way it works is you hire the lawyer after you file NOD. If you are working with a lawyer already he will probably help you with the NOD since that is in his interest. What gRADA said about what a good lawyer should do for his veteran client is true. The VSO's just take your paperwork and your evidence and submits it to the VA. They don't talk to you about strategy. A good lawyer in this field should know a number of doctors who can write IME's. He should know a lot about the most common types of claims and common mental and physical injuries. If a lawyer knows nothing about PTSD how can he guide and advise the vet on how to avoid pitfalls of C&P exams for PTSD, for instance. The lawyer is not a psychiatrist but he probably ought to have business relationship with a few.

Many vet lawyers are SSDI lawyers who are expanding their practice. My lawyer was in shock at first when he saw a vet's C-File which looked like a garbage dump instead of well constructed SSD claim file. If a lawyer really does his/her job they are worth their fee. I have a lawyer who has been dealing with the VA from VARO level through BVA and to the CAVC. 7 years so far and he has written many briefs and been to the BVA and CAVC at least three times. Most of us here won our claim pretty much on our own because VSO's failed us. I am happy to see lawyers being able to enter the fight.

Over 40 years of filing claims for increase and new claims the VA has pulled every trick in the book on me. If I had been able to get a good lawyer as an advocate I could have avoided some of the pitfalls. At least that is what I hope for younger vets.

[Navy04]

I would file a new claim bud. I had my C&P last Friday for an Increase in my SC 0% Hearing Loss. Doc stated I had increased Hearing Loss since my original SC, yet It will probably get denied, or if lucky 10%. I know two Vets, friends of mine, that wear Hearing Aids, and they only get 10%