Wisconsin Veterans Forward

2022 Veteran Disability Claims Info - You Earned These Benefits! (Part 3)

March 21, 2022 Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce Season 2 Episode 121
Wisconsin Veterans Forward
2022 Veteran Disability Claims Info - You Earned These Benefits! (Part 3)
Show Notes Transcript

(Part 3) Every veteran knows that the process to claim disability benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs can be complicated and frustrating.

Often, you need to enlist some help to get the compensation you deserve. We are excited to welcome Jim Brzezinski from Tabak Law back to the show to share his expertise and insights about the current VA disability claim landscape.

Questions? Comments? Continue the discussion by requesting access to our exclusive WVF Facebook Group.

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Wisconsin Veterans Forward is brought to you by the Wisconsin Veterans Chamber of Commerce, a nonprofit organization that serves veterans and military families by supporting veteran owned and veteran-friendly businesses throughout the state. 

On behalf of our members, we serve as an advocate for Wisconsin’s veteran business community and promote economic opportunity for military veterans, military families, and veteran-friendly businesses.

Follow us on all platforms: https://linktr.ee/Wivetschamber

 

Intro & Outro Themes: 

Barry Dallas - I’m Gone (https://uppbeat.io/t/barry-dallas/im-gone)

Noise Cake - Light It Up (https://uppbeat.io/t/noise-cake/light-it-up)

Speaker 1:

Today on Wisconsin veterans forward. Part three of our interview with Jim Bransky from Taback law. This is a dude who knows everything there is to know about the VA claims disability compensation process, and does his whole career is devoted to helping veterans get what they are owe from the department of defense. And it's an unfortunate reality, it's it stinks, but, but sometimes you need some firepower. Sometimes veterans need someone in their corner to help force the VA to get it right, cuz they often don't get it right that first time around. But I'm glad there are people like Jim and his team at TA out there. This is a great dialogue. So here it is part three. You are listening to Wisconsin veterans forward. Wisconsin's premier audio resource for veterans, military families, veteran owned and veteran friendly businesses. Wisconsin veterans forward is brought to you by the Wisconsin veterans chain of commerce@wiveteranschamber.org.

Speaker 2:

Anything that comes out now, that's a musculoskeletal that you've, that's recently been rated since 2012 and as a 0%, like

Speaker 1:

It's worth the look,

Speaker 2:

My head explodes. When I read those decisions, You're telling me that this person and has a service connected joint condition, you've already admitted. There's a condition and you've already admitted the service caused it. And you're saying that this person never has pain in that joint. Like, I don't know. I have pain. I have no conditions. I have pain in my joints all the time. I mean like, you know, right. I can't imagine someone who's actually gonna out something diagnosed in that joint. Never having pain. Right, right. Yeah. It's it's weird. Cause it doesn't have to be debilitating pain debilitating. It doesn't have to be constant pain. It doesn't have to be throbbing pain. It doesn't have to be a 10 on the pain scale. All

Speaker 1:

Just has to be pain. Just

Speaker 2:

Has to be pain. Yeah. You say, Hey, I have pain sometimes. Boom, 10%. Um, so for,

Speaker 1:

For someone who's worked, as long as you have doing this, uh, on one side of the table and then on the other side of the table, you've kind of, you've seen it all. You understand the process from sun up to sun down the whole thing. And I'm sure you like with the pain, there are certain trends that come in and out, you see the VA acting a certain way, uh, for certain decisions and then that'll change the next year or over a decade. I mean, you've been doing this for a long time. What trends do you notice now? Uh, hot issue right now is cancer and lung related issues associated with exposure to burn pits. And there's, there's some upcoming executive orders and, and, and, uh, directives coming down. What is it that primarily, are there any other trends that you're seeing things that folks that may have a claim or a zero rating or a dismissed or a denied claim that they should be aware of?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, here here's a couple of things. Um, and, and the burn pit thing is gonna be huge. I mean, we've been screaming about burn pits at the top of our, our lungs forever. Um, and it, and you know, there is a good list of stuff that they're gonna recognize as presumptive, which means basically that list. If you have that and you were in affected area, you don't get a medical opinion linking it's called presumptive, like similar to agent orange. Like if you have agent orange and you have, um, prostate cancer, you don't have to get, go to a doctor to say, Hey, did my agent orange exposure? Cause this prostate cancer that's not. Oh,

Speaker 1:

Wow. So, so if you had, if you have verified exposure to agent orange and you ended up with prostate cancer, they just assumed that connection.

Speaker 2:

So assumed yep. Same with, and that's

Speaker 1:

Where they're, that's where they are or where they're getting to be with burn pit and certain cancers. That's

Speaker 2:

Where they're getting to be with burn pits. And that list of cancers that you saw, there's probably about seven or eight. I think it was like different types of lung cancer, small cell. Um, there was like a, I think, uh, esophageal, not esophageal, but um, like Aaryn cancer, um, just all stuff related to the respiratory system. Um, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, I have there's the, that stuff that, um, folks were breathing over there was so bad. I mean, um, there, there's going to be many other conditions that come out. You know, I have several cases where I'm trying to link, you know, brain cancer and, and I think that's actually what president Biden's son died of. And he was over there, you know, so that, you know, that that stuff is out there and there is, there is medical evidence of a link. It's just not to the point where the VA is willing to say, Hey, we're just gonna give it to you without a, without an opinion. Um,

Speaker 1:

But right now, if I'm a veteran who has cancer of any of those kinds and was exposed, you know, and was deployed and exposed to an area where there was a burn pet, I should be calling a guy like you,

Speaker 2:

You should be calling me or you should at the very least get your claimant because it's not, it's not, not finalized yet. But if you wait until it's finalized, you're gonna lose effective date coverage. You're gonna lose the, the, uh, um, you may lose the back pay. You may lose some of your back pay. Yeah. Cause

Speaker 1:

You only get back paid up to the day that you file the claim.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. As the, okay. Under all circumstances, the first date filed for a particular condition is the furthest back that they're gonna go. Um,

Speaker 1:

Not like I was by a burn pit in 2009. So you gotta pay me until then. It's like for the day that I file.

Speaker 2:

No, if you never filed it. Yeah. You're never gonna get paid that far back. So, so get that filed. Um, the other thing I, I, I really wanna stress is that even though they come out with these lists, there still are so many more conditions that are potentially related. So, you know, it always helps even if you, you know, even if you've got something that's not on that list to have someone take a look with like, Hey, is there any studies that show, like I said, brain cancer is caused by these, you know, cuz they can, they sort of know what chemicals were potentially in that, that burn pit smoke. And you can look then into the studies of those particular chemicals as to how they affect the body. And it, it only makes sense, right? Like if, if you're breathing an it's causing lung cancer, you know that it's not like, you know, your lungs are this, um, you know, impenetrable, uh, latex thing or, you know what I mean? Like it's so right.

Speaker 1:

It follows. Yeah. Well and 10 years down the road, they could be like, okay, well now we've discovered that uh, colon cancer yeah. Can possibly be resultant from, and here you had filed a claim 10 years ago and they hadn't seen the connection then 10 years from now, maybe they see the connection and they owed you and, and could potentially owe you a huge payout. Is that

Speaker 2:

Exposure cases. I, you know, the VAs probably if they're, if they watch us ever, they're gonna be very mad at me, but like anything that I'm suffering from, if I was exposed, I'm filing for it. Even if there's no evidence right now. And I'm any expo, any, any chemical exposure, like if you were a firefighter and you were exposed to the firefighting phone, I'm filing it. If I was in camp Lajune and I had the and filing,

Speaker 1:

Right. If you had any sort of, if you lived on base near in, in the same state as any military water, water issues. Yes. File.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I mean, they'll probably say no at first, but the studies just keep coming out and as more and more vets are getting sick, so sick, um, more and more studies are being commissioned. And A lot of times you can, um, like I said, you're never gonna get paid back to the earliest you're ever gonna get paid is back to the date. You first file. So I'm getting everything in there. If I'm a vet and having those types of exposures.

Speaker 1:

And if someone's file for the very first time, um, you can do it yourself through your E benefits portal or it's not it's they don't use E benefits anymore. The, the va.gov, correct. Uh, you can file it yourself. However, I personally, and you can correct me cuz you're the expert here. I personally, you can set up an appointment for DAV American Legion VFW, any of those veteran services officers, the certified folks for free and their job is to help you file that claim. And they understand that language. I would never file a claim without their help personally, would you suggest the same?

Speaker 2:

I agree. A hundred percent. I, um, you know, and, and a lot of people will U will use them for appeals too. I personally believe that they are wonderful and amazing at the getting the paperwork filed for

Speaker 1:

An initial claim.

Speaker 2:

Initial claims. It's still good. Yeah. They know everything about it. Like that's, that's a no brainer to me. Um, and if I, um, and even sometimes if the appeal is just like, Hey, we didn't get your medical records. That might be a fine time to use them too. Here's when it's here's when I think going to an attorney is, is really a good idea. Number one would be my number one and biggest, uh, probably, uh, recommendation is if you've had a CMP exam, a comp pen, and that examiner gave you an adverse opinion, um,

Speaker 1:

Like a non-service connection.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So like, you know, you go in and, and they use like using the back example. Okay. You file your claim for your back. The VA says, oh look, it, you complained of back pain when you were in the service. Boom. Step one of the puzzle is, is complete. Oh, by the way, you're also treating at the VA. So you have a current condition. Step two of the puzzle is complete. Now the last piece of the puzzle is, um, is the opinion. And this is where it gets tricky is, you know, cuz it's an opinion. You can't say they're wrong, like

Speaker 1:

Right, right.

Speaker 2:

Can't be right or wrong. Right. It's just their opinion. Who's more persuasive is, is sort of the, um, the analysis. But if you've only got one opinion, it's the most persuasive opinion because it's an opinion, right? Um, the only time the opinion can flat out be wrong is if one, if they misstated the evidence or two, the evidence was not given to them, you know, such that they can't consider the evidence. That's the point when it's wrong. Um, so when, when there's actually been a comp pen exam and you're still not happy with the results, that's when I think, you know, getting an attorney involved. And a lot of times at that point, we'll either find the actual mistake with the opinion such that we can tell the VA, Hey, this opinion actually is wrong. I can demonstrate that it's wrong because they didn't have this or that or the other thing. Um,

Speaker 1:

Right. If they have a doctor who renders an opinion that a, a doctor, the VA by renders an opinion saying this, uh, you know, we acknowledge you have back pain, but it's not service connected. It is really, really hard at that point to go back to the same VSO and, and they can file an appeal for you. But it's real in my experience, from what I've heard working with countless veterans, it's really hard to get them to like, you need a little bit more fire power to get that reversal. Yeah. And same with, if they say, yes, it's service connected, but it's not bad enough, 0%, 10%. But you're at like, you know, you're 70, 80, 90%, you need more firepower. You need somebody like Jim and Taback law. Like you just, you need it. The, the VSOs are amazing, but that's not what they're best at, in my opinion, it sounds like that's what you're saying too.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Well, and, and what ends up happening is, and you know, it sucks that it's about money, but to fight these cases cost money sometimes, you know, and, um, American Legion, they don't have a budget to spend on expert opinions, you know, right. There may be studies that they have that are just general blanket studies, but that doesn't count for

Speaker 1:

An individual,

Speaker 2:

An individual because you need a, a literal opinion that this person had this experience and his current condition, his or her current condition is specifically related. You know, it's, it's, it's gotta be very specific and there's language that's required too. So, so that's when I think that it really is something that, um, an attorney is, is best equipped to handle is when, when you kind of, you've kind of get a, all of the evidence that is available to you, given it to them and they get to the point where it's sufficient, cuz they're not. So the other thing is the, VA's not gonna ask for an opinion because they have to pay these people, these doctors.

Speaker 1:

Right.

Speaker 2:

And, and there's been a lot more outsourcing of these opinions. I'm sure. You know, as many of you know, and I don't remember Adam, if you had gone to an outsource opinion like through LHI or V E

Speaker 1:

I had. Yep.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So, I mean, they paid per opinion, so they're not going to request that opinion unless the first two pieces of the puzzle are apparent, you know? So if they've gotten to the point where they're getting an opinion, they're saying, Hey, yeah, you've got a condition and I see something that's in service that is likely to cause a condition like that. And then, you know, if you get a, if you get a, um, a bad opinion, a lot of times, it, it's very funny because as I, I did worker's comp for the first part of my career too. I didn't have that many veteran clients. So I also did worker's comp and these opinions are getting more and more like, like adverse workers, comp opinions, where, you know, the insurance company sends you to one of their doctors and they say, oh yeah, I know you slipped and fell while you were working. However, you're 48 years old and you've

Speaker 1:

Just brained your ankle in middle school. So

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Or you've got age related arthritis and I know it wasn't hurting prior to that fall, but, um, it just happened to be that that condition manifested at the exact same time you fell. I, I don't get it, you know?

Speaker 1:

Right. Yeah. Just, just at that one moment.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Right. So, um, so yeah, it's very much, you know, become that kind of a game. And, and, and that's what, um, what ends up happening in these opinions is that a lot of times they're relating it to something else which maybe is partially true, but you know, there's no requirement that your service has to be the 100% cause of your condition. Hmm. You know, if it

Speaker 1:

Be a contributor

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Contributor or, um, you know, or, or even just accelerated the preexisting condition, a point where it's it's come on a little worse and quicker than it would have otherwise like

Speaker 1:

An exacerbator. Is that a word?

Speaker 2:

Yes. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

An exacerbator.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I would say it is

Speaker 1:

Right on the fourth and final part of this interview with Jim Bransky from Taback law, uh, is coming up and that episode part, it's waiting for you right now. You don't have to wait another week. It's sitting there right there for you. Come on, let's get over there. I'll shoot you there. Thank you for listening to Wisconsin veterans forward brought to you by the Wisconsin veterans chamber of commerce. Please visit us@wiveterans.org. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast, leave a rating and review in whatever platform you're listening through.