Is Hiring Help Worth It?

The fee rules make this an unusually easy question to answer honestly. Under 38 CFR §14.636, no accredited representative may charge you anything for filing an initial claim. So for a large share of veterans, the answer is not "is it worth it" — it is "nobody can charge you for this, go and file."

When you do not need us

• You are filing for the first time. No accredited representative may charge for it. Use a free VSO, or file yourself.
• You are filing an intent to file. Do it today, yourself, on VA.gov. It preserves your effective date and takes minutes. Waiting to find representation first can cost you months of back pay.
• Your condition is presumptive. PACT Act burn pit conditions, Agent Orange, Gulf War, radiation. The presumption does the work that a nexus opinion would otherwise have to do.
• You have clear service treatment records and a current diagnosis. Documented in service, diagnosed now, obvious link — that claim usually grants without argument.
• You have a good VSO who is on top of your file. Do not fix what is not broken.

When it starts to matter

Every one of these is post-decision — which is the same point at which a fee becomes lawful.

• You were denied and the decision does not make sense. Especially where the examiner wrote something favourable and VA denied anyway. See what the denial language means.
• You were granted, but at a percentage that does not match your symptoms. Under-rating is more common than denial and much less often challenged.
• The examination was inadequate. Range of motion recorded without pain testing, no METs testing, no body-surface-area measurement, a five-minute mental health exam. See inadequate C&P examinations.
• Your effective date looks wrong. Effective dates are worth more than percentages and are argued far less often. See effective dates and back pay.
• You received a proposed reduction. There is a hard 60-day clock. Act now: rating reductions.
• You cannot work because of service-connected conditions. TDIU is frequently missed by veterans and by representatives. TDIU.
• You have a secondary theory nobody has developed. This is where most of the unclaimed compensation in the system sits. Secondary service connection.
• There is an undebatable error in an old decision. CUE can reach back years.

How to think about the cost

A contingency fee is a percentage of past-due benefits — the retroactive lump sum. It does not touch your ongoing monthly compensation, which is yours in full for as long as the rating stands.

So the real question is narrow: is the outcome likely to be different with help than without? If your claim is going to grant either way, representation costs you money for nothing. If it is going to be denied either way, it costs you nothing but changes nothing. It is worth paying for only in the middle — where the argument, the lane and the evidence actually decide the result.

Anyone who tells you the answer is always yes is selling. So is anyone quoting an average increase — nobody can promise you a rating, and we do not.

What to do next

If you are pre-decision, go and file — with a VSO, or yourself. Do not wait.

If you have a decision in hand and something about it seems wrong, that is the conversation worth having. Send us the decision letter and we will tell you honestly whether there is an argument — including when there is not, and including when a free VSO can handle it perfectly well.