This booklet will provide valuable information to the Veteran on how to become more self sufficient in acquiring evidence so that the Veterans Administration will be able to concentrate in processing the claim faster. It offers advice to always use free resources such as the well trained Veteran Service Officers that have been trained to assist and represent the Veteran. It will additionally offer hints along the way to ensure the Veteran does not make common mistakes (especially at Compensation and Pension Examinations) that slow the claims through the adjudication process or may end in denial. It does not contain all the trials, tribulations and moments of claim success that the Author has gone through. The Author specifically designed the booklet be informative, inexpensive and wrote it to only contain pertinent VA Claim and appeals process information. Diagrams for the Appeals Processes have been included, but the Author believes that the Veteran needs to concentrate on ensuring that the claim goes through the adjudication process correctly the first time so that it minimizes the need for the Appeals Processes (since it also add considerable amount of time to resolve a claim). Some of the claims that the Author has reviewed with several Veterans indicate that the reason for their claim denial results comes down to the claim missing required elements (in Author's formula) or poor performance during a compensation and pension examination. He provides the information, methodology and hints to successfully transverse the adjudications processes. Also included are hints to ensure that the Veteran has the tools that can be used to ensure that they have the same records and evidence that the VA has in their possession. These techniques are invaluable if the Veteran has to enter the appeals processes. The author became involved in the claims processes early in 1989 shortly after he retired from the U.S. Navy. After several Veterans Administration (VA) Claims failures and successes, he very quickly became convinced that there must be a process that could be studied to acquire Claim Process information and then to provide Veterans this knowledge in some sort of training that could result in less claim denials and more successes. He suspected that a niche existed between the assistance the VA provides and what the Veteran Service Officers do when representing Veterans. On his full retirement in 2006, he commenced his research by asking many questions of the Veteran Service Officers representing Veterans, investigating Department of Veteran Affairs websites and discussions with members when he joined two Veteran Organizations. Discussion with many frustrated Veterans (from mostly failures in the Claims Process or failed appeals) resulted in the Author being more determined to developed a solution. He invested time in attending update seminars for Veteran Service Officers, but still could not gather enough material to fully understand the Claims Process. The light bulb went on when one of the Veteran Service Officers provided the Author a page from Part 4 of Title 38 Code of Federal Regulations which can provide some disability information that can be used to process a claim. The Author is convinced that in order for the VA to have more success in reducing claims in the claims processes, the Veteran as a stakeholder of the process, has to be trained so that stakeholders (Veterans and Veteran Service Officer) can do more especially in the evidence and/or record collection process. The Veterans should be trained so that they can understand the process well enough to provide evidence that matches their disability and leaves the VA to concentrate on adjudication and less on collecting evidence. This booklet has been designed so that the Veteran commences to comprehend how to successfully organize Winning VA Claims as a stakeholder of the claims process. Thank you for all you do and for your service.
About the Author: Master Chief Cervantez served in the U. S. Navy from July 31, 1962 until his retirement in September 1987. He served with VT25, Beeville, Texas, VQ2 Rota Spain, VXN8 Patuxent River, MD (he completed 2 tours to Vietnam assigned to VXN8 Detachment Western Pacific), NAF Mildenhall England, 2 tours to USS America Norfolk VA, U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy FT Bliss Texas, Aircraft Intermediate Maintenance Department Roosevelt Roads Puerto Rico, and Naval Aviation Maintenance Office Patuxent River MD. He worked for industry and Civil Service supporting Naval Projects and several Naval Organizations until his retirement to South Carolina. He has been involved in the VA Claims processes since 1989.