VA claims can sometimes seem confusing and intimidating – and often are. But for service connection itself, the rules are actually simpler than you would think.
Service connection simply means that a veteran’s disability was incurred during or aggravated by their military service. In order to prove it, you have to show three things:
- A current disability. A diagnosis is the usual way to establish this element, but a diagnosed condition is not always required. Under Saunders v. Wilkie, pain or another symptom can qualify as a disability when it causes functional impairment of earning capacity. A past injury with no current residuals is not enough; the question is whether you have a current condition or functional impairment.
- Event in service. The second thing you need to prove your claim is an event in service. That could be an injury (such as the broken arm I mentioned earlier), an illness, or something else that happened such as a traumatic incident, a hazardous exposure, etc.
- Connection (or nexus) between 1 and 2. A nexus is medical evidence (such as a doctors opinion) that the event caused the current disability.
Where it gets tricky is the exceptions or when you have difficulty obtaining evidence or getting recognition–or when VA makes a mistake. For example, when I injured my feet, that was the event in service. But when VA lost my records, there was no evidence of that event.
Except.. there was. What I didn’t know way back in the early 1990s is that my journal and letters home from basic training could also have proven my case. A buddy statement from someone I went through training with could have done the same.
Sometimes the nexus is presumed by law. A condition shown during service may support direct service connection, but an in-service diagnosis does not automatically eliminate every nexus or chronicity question. Other presumptions can supply the connection when their requirements are met. For example, qualifying Vietnam service generally carries a presumption of herbicide exposure, and prostate cancer is among the conditions presumptively associated with that exposure.
If you do not have a presumed nexus, VA may schedule a C&P examination when the record contains competent evidence of a current disability or symptoms, evidence indicating a possible association with service, and insufficient medical evidence to decide the claim. That is a low threshold, but an examination is not automatic in every case. In most cases these days, the examination is performed by an outside contractor such as QTC, Optum Serve, or VES. Be prepared for anything: sometimes you’ll get a quality exam, and sometimes it’ll seem like a nightmare.
In most cases, if your claim is denied it will be because you are missing one or more of those three elements. If you need help with the next steps, feel free to call or request a case evaluation.
