The Department of Veterans Affairs is not always easy to deal with when it comes to injury compensation. If you're looking through the requirements for your injury claim or dealing with a rejection and appeal process, there may seem like a lot of information that is just too difficult for one injured person to get on their own. A few concepts of the filing system, injury validity and the Veterans Affairs (VA) support programs can help you understand your denial and what to do next.

Why Would A Valid Injury Be Denied?

There's a lot of money involved in compensation and pension from the VA. Annual budget reports show the millions of dollars used in individual departments, with a lot of the funding going towards medical care that a veteran would receive if successful with a claim. It's reasonable to believe that some may try to take advantage of the system, and that the VA has systems in place to protect against fraud.

The system is by no mean perfect. Due to strict guidelines for injury compensation, it's not uncommon for a person with a real, service-connected injury--no matter if in combat, training, technical or administrative work--to be denied their compensation due to technicalities.

The VA process is quite difficult for the average person without VA experience to tackle alone. For some injuries, you may need a legal professional to give advice on how to file your claim, what information needs to be included and what to do when you don't receive the expected compensation.

What Is A Service-Connected Injury?

In order to qualify for compensation under the VA Compensation and Pension (C&P) policies, a service-connected injury test must be passed. This means that your injury must be related to military service.

If a veteran is injured after military service in a car accident, workplace accident or other issue not related to the military, their injuries won't be covered by VA C&P. The VA disability program's funds are limited, and these injuries not related to military service would be taking away funding from those who were injured during their military career.

That isn't to say that the VA won't help. There are many basic services that qualifying veterans can use from VA facilities such as hospitals or clinics, but your unrelated injury would be better serviced in programs such as Social Security disability support, worker's compensation or legal challenges. The VA will even point you in the right direction to get your injury issue taken care of.

If your injury is service-connected, you need to gather proof. Word of mouth is not proof alone, even if you had witnesses of the injuries and were injured in harm's way. You'll need medical record entries, service record injuries or other verifiable proof that you were injured in the service.

The longer you wait, the harder it gets. If you're a victim of a simple paperwork mistake, contact a personal injury attorney at Law Office of Leslie S. Shaw immediately. They can get through a lot of the slow-moving bureaucracy that veterans have learned to love in order to get information from your old duty stations.

Official statements, proper documentation of injury and other evidence can be gained much faster through the appropriate channels with a trained professional. If you wait too long, the information may be forgotten and you may have to deal with time-consuming, partially successful medical procedures and arguments to prove your case. Get your existing paperwork together and work together with an attorney for the compensation you deserve.