TDIU Veteran Attorneys Chicago

TDIU Veteran Attorneys Chicago

The VA works off a rating system to determine how disabled you are. Your benefits are related to your VA disability rating. While the VA does a decent job of covering the bases, there will be a number of situations that do not neatly fit into the VA’s rating system. If you have applied for VA benefits and qualified for VA benefits, you may be able to file an appeal to have your disability rerated. This can be important because the full benefits package is only offered to those who have a “TDIU” rating meaning that you are “totally disabled” and “individually unemployable.” 

Proving a TDIU claim

The VA will award TDIU benefits to those who have one disability that rates over 60%, or two disabilities that rate over 70%. However, a standardized chart cannot determine whether or not you are able to do work for which you are qualified. In certain cases, the VA may rate your disability too low. In that case, you may be able to have your disability rerated. In other cases, the VA has your disability rated accurately, but the rating fails to reflect the difficulty of sustaining gainful employment.

As an example, you may have an old ankle injury. Ankle injuries are not rated very high, but this ankle injury has not gotten better over time and numerous surgeries have only made the issue worse. The injury prevents you from remaining on your feet for more than 20 minutes at a time, and yet you need to be able to stay on your feet to do work for which you are qualified. In these cases, the VA may be inclined to rerate you based on the failure of their chart to adequately rate the extent of your injury or how disabling your injury is when considered in terms of your employment duties. 

Extra-schedular TDIU claims

Your attorney can make an argument as to why your particular injury should be rated higher than the VA chart allows. This can be due to a pain disorder that emerged around an injury site, complications related to the injury that weren’t present at the time, a failure of documentation to account for the extent of your injury, or a failure of the VA to determine how much your particular injury will prevent you from doing work for which you are qualified. 

Your attorney will work closely with you, your family, former employees, former servicemen, alongside your doctors and vocational counselors who can provide reports on the type of work you can do with your current disability. Our attorneys have successfully helped Chicago veterans recover better benefits packages than the ones they were originally offered.

Talk to a Chicago TDIU Attorney Today

The veterans’ advocates at The Comerford Law Office, LLC help Chicago veterans file TDIU claims with the VA. Call today to schedule an appointment and we can begin preparing your case file immediately.