By a veteran, for veterans
See what veterans filed for your condition, and why it was granted or denied
The Board of Veterans' Appeals publishes every decision it makes. We have indexed 1,501,587 of them and turned each condition into one file you can read before you file.
$15 a pack, one time. No account and nothing to fill in.
Decision Date: 06/05/19 DOCKET NO. 18-26 788
ORDER
The 30 percent rating for left knee strain is restored effective February 1, 2018 [...]
The 30 percent rating for right knee strain is restored effective February 1, 2018 [...]
FINDINGS OF FACT
4. The decision to reduce the disability rating for left knee strain [...] was based on an inadequate VA examination; material improvement [...] has not been shown by a preponderance of the evidence.
Search what the Board decided
Reading, by situation
What veterans in three situations have filed.
A first claim
What the Board has seen filed first, and what the record had to show.
A higher rating, or a new condition
What was claimed when a condition got worse, or caused another one.
A decision you disagree with
What the Board did with appeals, and the three routes they took.
The VA does not add ratings, it combines them. The combined rating calculator shows that math.
Who's behind it
Hector K, Air Force Veteran
I filed my own claim the hard way. I spent three years reading the regulations and thousands of Board decisions before I sent it in. By the end I knew what the VA grants and what it turns down. This site is what I wish I'd had on day one. I run it through Pursuit Labs, a small company I own, and nobody here earns more when your rating goes up.
What's in a pack
Everything we could find about one condition, in one file.
What others claimed
And how it went for them
Every condition veterans have claimed alongside yours, how often they claimed it, and how often the Board said yes. The spread is wider than most people expect, and knowing which way a pairing tends to go is the whole point.
What the exam looks for
Worth reading beforehand
The rating criteria the VA publishes for your condition, straight from the eCFR. It is what the examiner measures you against, so it helps to read it before you go in rather than after a decision shows up.
The real decisions
In the Board's own words
Actual decisions you can read on the Board's own site, so you never have to take our word for it. A past decision binds only the case it decided, and we say so.
No account, no forms, and we never ask for your records or your VA login. We teach. We do not file for you, and we are not lawyers, not a VSO, and not the VA. Nothing here is a prediction about your claim.
The method
Nine steps. In this order.
Gather your documents, and see a private doctor
First, send the VA an intent to file. The day the VA receives it counts as your claim's filing date, if your complete claim reaches the VA within a year. An intent to file does not work for a supplemental claim, where you add evidence and ask the VA to decide again. Next, gather service treatment records, private records, your DD-214. Then a private doctor for a nexus opinion, a letter tying the condition to your service, and a DBQ, the VA's exam form, done with the right measuring tools. This is where many veterans stall, so this is where the free pages are most worth reading.
Find the applicable ratings
Your diagnosis becomes a diagnostic code with a rating ladder. Knowing the criteria tells you what the exam has to measure.
Look for secondary conditions
A bad knee changes how you walk. Over time that can wear down a hip, your back, and the other knee. The VA rates each one on its own once a doctor links it to the first. The VA calls these secondaries.
Check whether the VA already presumes your condition
If you served in certain places or times, the VA accepts that certain conditions came from service. These are called presumptive conditions. You do not have to prove the link.
Read the actual Board decisions
The Board of Veterans' Appeals publishes its decisions, with names removed. For each condition, they show what evidence won and what exam mistakes lost. This is the hack. This site is how you do it without reading thousands of decisions.
Mental health problems caused by your conditions are real, and the VA rates them
Depression and anxiety caused by any service-connected condition are rated on their own. In the Board decisions we have indexed, mental health was claimed as secondary to another condition 11,476 times. Many veterans never think to claim it.
Submit with evidence
A claim is evidence, not a form. Nexus letters, statements, private records: filed with the complete claim, not after. Send it inside the year your intent to file gives you.
Get lay evidence
Statements from the people who saw the change in you: a spouse, a friend, someone you served with. They saw it happen, and the Board must weigh what they say.
Be honest
Say exactly what happens, no more and no less. The VA compares your exam to your records. Understating and overstating both cost you. Being honest and thorough does not guarantee a grant, but it is the kind of record the Board can grant on.
Start here
Read the method before you read anything else.
The nine steps, in order, with the regulation behind each one and a real Board decision to show what winning evidence looked like. Then three deeper reads on the steps most veterans skip.
Pinned
The VA Disability Hack in Nine Steps
The whole method on one page.
Step 6
Mental Health Caused by Your Service-Connected Conditions
In the Board decisions we have indexed, a bad back or knee is the usual cause. Many veterans never think to file for it.
Step 5
How to Read a Board of Veterans' Appeals Decision
Where the reasons live, what a remand means, and how to find the exam finding that decided it.
Step 8
Lay Evidence and Buddy Statements That Hold Up
Who can speak for you, and what they should say.
What veterans say