We Fight Until You Win Your VA Benefits

Retroactive Award:

Branch of Service:

Date of Decision:

Case Profile:

Our client is a Navy veteran who served during the Gulf War era. Her attempts to obtain service connection for a mental health condition were initially denied despite a current diagnosis and credible reports of in‑service trauma. Although she promptly appealed those decisions, the VA continued to rely on inadequate examinations and unpersuasive opinions. These missteps left her without recognition of the link between her service and her mental health symptoms.

We filed a supplemental claim with new and relevant evidence and challenged the sufficiency of the prior adjudications. The VA’s regulations permit readjudication when new evidence is presented, and we provided updated medical records and lay statements that directly connected her anxiety and depression to service. This evidence showed she met the criteria for at least a 50 percent rating because her symptoms—including chronic sleep impairment, depressed mood, memory problems, panic attacks and suicidal ideation—caused reduced reliability and productivity. We also stressed that the effective date should align with the date VA received her intent to file, consistent with the general rule that an award’s effective date is the date of claim or date entitlement arose, whichever is later.

On September, 2025, the VA agreed. It granted service connection for “unspecified trauma and stressor related disorder with major depressive disorder, recurrent episode, severe and severe alcohol use disorder” and assigned a 50 percent rating effective December 14 , 2023. This award, combined with her other service‑connected conditions, resulted in a 100 percent combined rating and conferred eligibility for Dependents’ Educational Assistance. The decision also provided nearly two years of retroactive benefits totaling $37,720.96. This outcome validates her service, secures her benefits, and demonstrates our ability to prevail on appeal even after initial denials.

Retroactive Award:

Branch of Service:

Date of Decision:

Case Profile:

Our client, a Navy veteran, first filed a claim for generalized anxiety disorder in 1980. Although the VA eventually recognized the condition, they limited the rating to 30 percent and assigned a much later effective date, leaving decades of service‑connected suffering uncompensated. Even after a Board of Veterans’ Appeals remand, the effective‑date issue remained unresolved.

We took the case and filed a Higher‑Level Review (HLR), arguing that the VA committed clear and unmistakable error (CUE) in setting the effective date. Under VA regulations, when a claimant continuously pursues a claim, the effective date should align with the date of receipt of the original claim or the date entitlement arose. We gathered lay statements and treatment records showing persistent symptoms—anxiety, chronic sleep impairment, depressed mood, difficulty maintaining relationships, disturbances of motivation and mood, panic attacks and episodes of unprovoked irritability. These symptoms are consistent with the 70 percent rating criteria for mental disorders, which require evidence of occupational and social impairment with deficiencies in most areas due to symptoms such as impaired impulse control and difficulty adapting to stressful circumstances. We demonstrated that the VA’s earlier 50 percent rating—appropriate only where reliability and productivity are reduced but not severely impaired—was insufficient.

The HLR conceded our argument. The VA corrected the effective date, assigning a 50 percent rating from October 1 , 2013 (the date the claim was first continuously pursued) and a 70 percent rating from June 5 , 2015 when treatment records first showed impaired impulse control and unprovoked irritability. This decision recognized more than a decade of retroactive entitlement and resulted in an award of $127,575.22 in August 2024. After more than four decades of fighting for recognition, the veteran finally received just compensation and financial relief—a life‑changing outcome that underscores our commitment to securing every benefit our clients have earned.