Some time ago, I was talking to a Veteran who was preparing his Notice of Disagreement (aka, the NOD) to a VA Ratings Decision that denied – again – his claim for service connection of certain disabilities he incurred in military service.
He’d been working on the NOD for a few weeks, and when he called, this is what he said:
“Chris, I just don’t have a clue where to start. There’s so much I want to say, but when I start writing I just get mad. I end up writing a rant that wouldn’t even persuade ME to grant my own claim. Now, I’m just burnt out and exhausted and feel like its easier to give up than to file this NOD.”
You know that feeling, don’t you? Lord knows, I did when I received my first claim denial.
His next statement gave me an idea:
“Chris, there has to be something that can help me and other Veterans get through this nightmare”.
I Recorded a Video to Teach You How to Write Better.
I’ve been giving a talk to small groups of Veterans for some time now. I called the talk: “Get to the P.O.I.N.T – Better Writing in Your VA Claim”.
I took the script over to my friends over at SyncLab Media, and asked if they could help me record it.
After several weeks of recording, this is what we came up with – a 25+ minute training video that you can buy and stream online on your desktop or laptop as often as you want:
This Video Can Help You Get the VA to WANT to Grant Your Claim.
I’ve looked at hundreds – if not thousands – of VA claims and C-Files. In doing so, I have found a LOT of patterns:
* There is a clear pattern in what claims get granted and which do not get granted.
* There is a clear pattern in which claims are decided more quickly
* There is a pattern in which claims are decided more satisfactorily.
Bottom Line: the VA tends to work those cases first that are the easiest to work.
What makes a VA Claim “Easy to Work”? In a nutshell, this:
Claims that have well-written and persuasive arguments are cleaner, easier to understand, and tend to get decisions a lot quicker than claims that do not have clear writing.
But, as many Veterans have told me – who cares how well I write?
After all, the VA is supposed to be assisting us in our claims and appeals. We served our country and the VA should take care of us regardless how well – or how poorly – we write.
But as my grandmother used to say: “If ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ were candies and nuts, oh what a party we’d have”.
If we are going to wait on the VA to do the right thing, we are going to wait for a very long time.
I don’t want to wait – do you? I want to teach Veterans how to Take Back the Power in their VA Claims.
Here’s what I am going to Teach You in this Video.
* How to Make your VA Claims Arguments MORE Persuasive.
* How to give the VA written documents that are more clear, concise
* How to use your writing to MAKE the VA want to issue a decision in your Claim.
* How to outline your writing, the facts you should add to support your argument
* How to Tell the VA exactly what You Want.
* PLUS – 7 Tips for Editing your writing that will fix 80% of the problems in your VA Claims arguments.
* MUCH MORE!
Advise me when the “CD” is available.
Thank you
J.M.B.
Hi ALF:
Awesome P.O.I.N.T class. I’ve already started creating a POINT template in .doc format. A few questions:
1. Is a POINT class in hard copy (with POINT examples) available?
2. When addressing/responding to the VA using your suggested POINT format, would this be on their VA Form 21-4138 or does it even matter?
Thank you,
Robert
Good question!
I am not a big fan of the VA Form 21-4138, as I post here. What I usually do is use the form that is required (Notice of Disagreement, VA Form 9, etc.,) and reference my written arguments on Continuation pages.
If you want to share the POINT Template, I will distribute it free to anyone who uses the video.
Also, I’m working on a “workbook” companion to the video with practice exercises and examples…stay tuned…if you get a copy of the video, I’ll send you the workbook free when its available.
Thanks for the feedback!
Chris