Ep 119-122, March 2022:

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Today on Wisconsin veterans forward. All right. Let's talk about VA disability claims. And some of you might be saying, but Adam at the, at the Wisconsin veterans chamber of commerce right now, it's restaurant and retail month, why would you be talking about VA disability claims inform? Well, first off, it's really, really important for everyone who served and their families to ensure that the department of defense, the department of veterans affairs, is holding up their end of the agreement and supporting you in the way that they committed to doing. When you signed on the out in line, when you did that, you made a commitment to them, but they also made a promise to you. And a lot of times they don't follow through on that. You follow through, you serve on honorably. They need to follow through too. So like overarchingly super important thing at all times, but like, it can be really hard to engage in retail operations, whether you are a consumer or an entrepreneur or a salesperson or a business owner, whatever, it can be hard to do things that are as pedestrian as going to a restaurant and enjoying a meal with your family, because you may be dealing with the lingering, physical, or mental or otherwise, or combined effects of things that are plague you by virtue of your service.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Why? I mean, it's, it's hard to talk about things that seem so pedestrian when there are people who are suffering and not getting taken care of the way that they earned, they earned that. And a lot of veterans are like, you know, I wouldn't, you know, I don't need to file a claim. You know, I'm not a taker or I, you know, I don't need handouts, baloney, take that attitude and throw it away. That's dumb. The department of defense made you a promise that they would take care of you enduringly financially medical clear otherwise, for anything that happened to you, almost anything that happened to you or any ailment that developed while you were serving, they promised to do that. You're not a, you're not a, you're not asking for a handout by having them fulfill their end of the agreement. That was part of the deal. And a lot of people don't realize that a lot of veterans don't realize that and it drives me nuts. So I'm a, I'm an evangelist for this. So we're taking a step away from talking about retail and restaurants. We'll get back to that next week. But in the meantime, we need to talk about this, cuz this topic always crops up and I get straighten

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Because there's so much that y'all deserve and have earned That you deserve to be taken care of for whether that is a financial compensation, whether that's medical benefits, whatever, and sometimes believe it or not. The, the process of filing for these and getting the VA to follow through on their end of the deal can be really complicated and they often don't get it right.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Sometimes you'll use a, a veteran services officer VSO you'll use a, an office like the D disabled American veterans or the VFW or American Legion or any of those departments that are actually certified to help people file disability claims. And I think that's a great place to start. I've used them myself from DAV to American Legion to, I mean, my initial claim, I filed through Texas vet commission outta San Antonio. And a lot of that got got substantiated and I got a disability rating for excellent. There's some things that they got wrong. And a couple of them, I was like, okay, whatever. But some of them were like, okay, this is bothering me because this is an enduring issue. How can I get them? Like, I've appealed. How can I get them to get this right? Sometimes when you need someone or when you need some help, need some firepower getting it right. Sometimes you need to turn to somebody who has a specific targeted expertise in this field. In speaking the VA's language and speaking the department of defense's language in doing what needs to be done, to get folks taken care of the way they've earned and deserve to be taken care of,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

I've done it. Lots of people have done it. I've called on this person personally for help saw. And he's helping me right now.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

He's a rockstar. And so is this whole team, Jim Bronski, he's the man payback law. They're amazing. Today. We're gonna talk about the current climate, current state of the department of veterans affairs. There's a lot of changes. Lot of things you need to know about current state of VA disability benefits. And we're gonna talk about like, what is the process? What happens when you need more firepower, when you need somebody in your corner like Jim, and like the, the team at Taback law to, to, you know, to go duke it out for you, how do you go through that process? What, what is their, what, what can you expect? We're gonna get into all of that exciting stuff. After this very brief bump, you are listening to Wisconsin veterans forward. Wisconsin's premier audio resource for veterans, military families, veteran owned and veteran friendly businesses. Wisconsin veterans forward is brought to you by the Wisconsin veterans chamber of commerce at wiveteranschamber.org, friends. Happy to introduce my friend, Jim Brzezinski from Tabak law. How are my man?

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

I'm doing great, Adam, I'm happy to be here. And you know, I really enjoyed listening to your first few minutes talking about the fact that these benefits are not a handout. They furthest thing from a handout. I mean, absolutely. I, you know, there's a lot of other government benefits that are also not handouts that people feel the same way, but this one in particular is I mean, you know, and, and you being someone who served, I, I was not I I'm lucky enough to work with you folks who have, and I get to experience you know, the having conversations with some amazing people who have put their lives on the line and, and some of 'em are paying the price now, even post-military. And, and that's really what it's all about. You know, the VA did this did was, was formed basically as an insurance policy, right?

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Like, you know, you go to work for, with Wisconsin veteran chambers of veteran chamber of commerce. You've got insurance, you've got workers comp insurance. You've probably got an an option to buy disability insurance. You've probably got an option to buy life insurance. You've probably got medical insurance. Well, you know, guess what the military has those things too. And you know, if, if you bought health insurance and you were suffering from some sort of medical condition, would you ever say, oh, you know what, I don't need it. I, you know, I don't need treatment. I, I

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Don't wanna hand out yeah.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

A handout or, you know, like, let's say you have life insurance, you pass away. Is your widow gonna say you know, I, I don't need it. I'm fine though. It it's, it's the same, it's

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

A really good point. I never thought of it like that.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

It's the same thing. And it's, yeah. And, and I, I mean, especially, you know, the people who are enlisted and just get in, I mean, I see what the salary is. It's not, you're not being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to be in the military. These benefits are what make up for that, you know, lower I don't wanna say lower, but it's, you know, it's, it's included just like any other job, the benefits are part of the package

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Part of the total compensation package. Absolutely.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

So yeah, what, what you said, I have that conversation all the time and it's, it's on. And, and, you know, I, if, if my tax dollars being a, non-veteran have to go to something this is what I want going for, and I want people taking advantage.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

I think that's awesome. And, and I'm just curious, I, we may have talked about this last time you were on the show. We've had, you've, you've been our, our most repeat guest here.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Hey, I think

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

This is our third or fourth time chatting. And just, it's, it's always a hit every time people, people need this information and they share it with the people that they love. So you not being a service member yourself. What drove you to this, this specific discipline of law?

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

You know, it was a little bit of a few different things, kind of all colliding at once. When I went to law school, I had no idea that this is where I would be. Right. I didn't know it was even an option as a practice area really. Hmm. So going back to probably around 2007, I, I got a job with the VA. Now I do have service member family members who are, you know, active duty we're in all 20 years and re retired.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Sure.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

My grandpa was a ended up as a senior master Sergeant with the one 28th outta Mitchell. My uncle's over there right now. Oh, nice. Was in the Navy and it's so, you know, it's not like I, I didn't have any experience with the whole veterans military, you know, they were deployed during the Gulf war and I, I got to be, you know, that experience of having a family, family member over there during that thing. So, so I do have that. But what really, the progression of my career, basically in 2007, I, I had a friend who was working at the VA and there was this huge hiring blitz, like they, my class. And it was like I say, class, because when we did a training, there was like a hundred people being trained for my position over at the Milwaukee VA at the time.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Mm. And and I think I was probably like the third out of five classes like that, that all happened within like a six month period. So it was, it was basically what happened was some funding got allocated. They had to use it immediately or lose it and, and, oh boy, did they use it? So, so that was how I got in. I started off as a, a VSR, which is a veteran service representative, basically, you know, the letters you get from the VA VSRs, draft those up in, send them out. So there's a, a group that tells the VSRs what the actual decision is. Then the VSRs are the people who basically take what they're told and, and communicate the decision. So that was what I was doing. You know, then because of being in law school, I was eligible to get up to what's called the rating org or becoming an RVSR, which is, you know, when you file, you get that first rating decision.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

I was the one, I was one of the people who was taking the evidence, writing those decisions, making the actual decision and you know, and, and then sending it down to the RVSR to be mailed out. So did that for a couple of years. And then I was actually going to law school, part-time at Marquette at night. And, you know, it ended up getting to the point where I, I sort of had to choose like law school or my career with the VA, which the VA's a pretty decent job and not many people leave there once they're in there. Cuz you know, you got the government Benny's, you got the

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Great benefits.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

So but I had you know, I had already invested, you know, two years worth of tuition into law school and I was like, okay, well I, I have to do this. So so I left to finish full-time but what I was doing was I was still volunteering at the VA. I was volunteering in the legal clinic, which I don't know if you ever back in like the, the old buildings back behind the hospital, there was this this building that was, is not quite from the civil war, but probably pretty close that they

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

It's the one that they recently refurbished.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah. So right. So they, they did the soldiers homes, which were kind of right, right. It was around there, but there's a, there's a little admin building that they would let us come in and we would do these legal clinics where vets could come with literally any legal issue. There's an attorney. And then there's law students working together with the attorney to get some sort of advice to the, the veterans. And, and the funny thing was because of the VSOs that are available to vets for free, whenever someone came in with a benefit question, as part of us being there, we had to refer them to the VSO. Like we weren't help with benefits, even though I, I had some really good knowledge to pass along at the time,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Years of experience too. Yeah.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

So what ended up happening was, you know, I ended up actually talking with a couple just either before or after the clinic started or ended. And I ended up giving a few vets, just some pointers, just not really like, you know, I wasn't like representing them or sure. Detailed advice, but like, Hey, here's what I would do in your situation. Go do this, get that. And what ended up happening was like, the word got out that, you know, I could be there cuz we'd say, okay, go to the VSO. And they're like, well, I just came from the VSO. Like this is they, they didn't have a solution for me, you know? And, and that's why, why they were seeking legal help. You know, this was 2011, there really wasn't anyone practicing around the area at the time. I don't think there really are many more you know, focus on it. There's a nice firm out in Madison called west and dun west

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

And dun. Yep. They're they're partners of ours. Yeah. Members of the chambers. Well, good people over

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

There. Yeah. They're great. So Shauna actually worked in the same department I did as R VSR in the about that. Yeah. So we didn't work together. We just barely cross missed cross crossing paths. But so she started took the same trajectory as me into, you know, helping vets and but anyways, so I was at these clinics. I was sort of getting the word out and there'd be people coming when I was scheduled to work and like waiting after. And, and we talked, so what ended up happening was after like a year and a half more of law school and doing these volunteer clinics, I had probably a good 15 to 20 vets that were just waiting for me to graduate. And and you gotta get accredited by the VA to represent veterans, you know, an attorney you have to be accredited.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

So you can't just pick up and say, I'm gonna represent a veteran on a VA. Right. Cause you won't be recognized by the VA unless you go through their accreditation process. So, so I had to get that. And then within a few months of graduation, may of 21, or I'm sorry, may of 11 you know, I got the accreditation accreditation and I, I started working on these cases and, and you probably have been applying long enough that you remember the old appeals process with you know, you file and you could file an an N O D with a where you notice disagreement and you could get a decision. And I mean, the funny thing back then is it literally took sometimes five years from the date. You file a disagreement wow. To get to get the next step of the decision, which was called a stay of the case. And then it could be sometimes another three or four years before you would get a hearing with a judge. If you asked for one that's

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Insane. And how many people give gave up during that period of time. Oh,

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

I, I could tell you now, like the vast majority, because now they're coming back again and I'm looking and I see, okay, well you, you know, they five, but now they've let their appeal period pass.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

And, and I'll tell you, some of them, some of those cases are still pending, not as many, but it's not uncommon for me to sign on a vet who thinks they don't have a claim pending because it's been literally years since they've heard anything, but

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

There's still something in process somewhere

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

I get in the file. 'em Like, Hey, you actually, we don't need to file this. We actually just need to prepare because you're going to have a hearing probably within the next year or so. Because it's already filed. And, and that, and

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Now the process doesn't take quite as long.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

No, it's gotten better. It actually has. And it's because they've opened up some new channels of appeals. It used to be very linear. Like you would file your case. If you got denied, you would file a notice of disagreement. You would wait for a statement of the case, which I said, like I said, it could take sometimes three or more years. And then if you still weren't happy, you could file what was called a form nine, go to the BVA and wait, you know, either just get a decision from a judge or get a hearing and then, you know, go to the courts after that. Well, now what you can do is you can file your case, allow the VA to work it up with what they've got, get a decision. And the VA will notify you. What's missing rather than file an appeal right away.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

You can get what's missing and file. What's called a supplemental claim. And there's certain times that you still would go into the next level, even, you know, even if that they came with that, which, you know, we can talk about if there's time, but you, you can actually file a supplemental claim even though you, and basically it starts the process over again. It's like, like, okay, I, you, you can save my effective date from this first claim, but I wanna go through the original claim process again, because here's new evidence that you didn't see last time.

It used to be, you would find file the you would file your claim and they would tell you what you needed. And even if you had the new evidence in order to have it reviewed, you would have to file the notice of disagreement. And you would have to wait three to five years sometimes to get that next decision, even though it was just the simple piece of evidence that was missing. So now what's happening is you get the new evidence. You filed a supplemental claim, which starts the process over for you. And a lot of 'em are being, you know, claims that could have taken three or four years can now get done in 12 months, you know, because you, you, you wait three to six months for your first decision. They tell you what's missing. You get it. You ask again, and you get another decision. So, so that actually does knock out quite a bit of claims. It helps vets all around, I think because you know, you're, you're not waiting, which, you know, some of the vets that come my way are so disabled, they can't work and they're struggling or homeless, you know? I mean they need,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

They, they need answers not three to five years from now.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yes. Yeah. Imagine

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

I think it's important to note that it still does take time.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yes.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

And even though it is a simplified and expedited process compared to what it used to be, if you've already received a denial, if you have, have already received a decision that you are not that you're, that you don't accept, that you're not happy with, it's super important to have somebody help guide you through this process. Right. And, and, and that would be some, someone like you, that would be, yeah, payback law and folks who know how to get this done. So it doesn't get lost waiting in the wings for years on end. Somebody who can manage the case. And the other important note is that you don't, I, I'm not like I'm using payback law right now. I'm using Jim and his team to help me settle a, a, a claim dispute. And I did, I'm not paying out of pocket up front.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

You're not paying the, you know, the $250 an hour lawyer fees on the front end. I didn't pay a retainer to make this happen. This is a service that is, that is there is no upfront cost to the veteran. Can you explain kind of how that works? Cause I, you know, anybody who might say like, well, I don't wanna go to a lawyer for this or a lawyer for the VA. They're just taking advantage of veterans, which is baloney. Can you just explain sure. Where your, like, where, how do you keep the lights on? Where does that compensation come from? So people understand that what you're doing is, is totally on the up and up.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah, absolutely. I, I, I love to. So you know, and, and one thing that's very important to know is like, we don't get paid on a case even if, even if you were to sign on with us. And this happens all the time and when it happens, but like, I file a case and then I look and I say, Hey, you had this happen in the, in the service. Why haven't you ever filed for this other disability? And they say, oh, I just, I never thought about it. And I'm like, well, are you still having issues? Oh yeah. Okay. Well, let's, let's file that claim. And it's such an easy claim that they win right away filed first time, no appeal needed. We can't get paid on, on those cases because we only get paid. If there's some decision that has to be appealed.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Like, you know, so a lot of vets are saying this claim is too easy. I don't want help. You know, what if we take your case and it's that easy, it's not gonna cost you anything. We have cases all the time where, you know, I know for a fact that the VA we'll screw up enough of these cases, that it, for me, it makes sense to still take a lot of 'em and just do it, knowing that a good percentage are gonna win right away. And, you know, we'll chalk it up to help an vet that deserved it and needed it. And, and we'll go our Merry way with no feet. I mean, I would say probably 10 to 15% of our cases get settled with no feet.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

That's a super important point here. Yeah's that his team only, and, and P you know, like Wes, you mentioned west and dun very similar situation. And so Jim and his team at Taback law, anybody who works in this space they only get compensation. If there has been an appeal on an, an, an existing decision, and that appeal is reversed, and there is back pay that is owed to the veteran. At which time the firm will take a portion of that. Is that accurate?

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Good, Adam. So then when we do have an appeal and, and, and even on some of those cases, when they get it right, they get something wrong, whether it be the effective date or the percentage, you know, honestly, as an attorney, I, I, I probably would make myself way too busy, but I would, as a bad, I would want every decision at least reviewed by an attorney. Mm. You know, because we do it for free. We review the case, like, right. That fine cases we will take is by reviewing a case for free. And I'll tell you if I can't win a case and get back pay, I'm not gonna take the case. And you basically just got your free review, you, and, you know, the VA did what they were supposed to do. Whereas, you know, the vast majority of time, I say, okay, well actually I see something that we can appeal.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

And you know, it's gonna result in money for you. And if there's back pay, then we would get a fee on that. And, and our fee is what, what ends up happening is the VA withholds 20% of the back pay only. So like, you know, if you would get a hundred percent for a year, we would get only a payment on that year of back pay. It wouldn't be like every month where we get a chunk of your payment or anything like that. It's just that back pay amount. Now, you know, sometimes cases that have been waiting a long time there's, there's a decent amount of back pay and right. You know, and, and those cases are generally tougher cases. And they generally take more not only work, but a lot of times we have to put a lot of money into it, such as expert opinions.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

And, you know, and, and, and that's another piece of the puzzle at, and we don't charge upfront for any legal fees that are needed. So like, you know, a lot of firms and even a lot of VA firms not only will they charge more than 20%, like some will charge a third or, or even more. But a lot of 'em will make you pay for your experts, which sometimes can be a and 1500, $2,000 of power. And you know, we are lucky enough to have a firm that has other practice areas that can help us to fund what we're doing with the VA until we get paid.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Which is awesome.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah, it is awesome. And, you know and like I was saying, some of these vets come to us and they have nothing. They are literally, yeah.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

They can't, they, they can't work.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

How do, how do you flip, how do you fund a thousand, 2020 $500 to get compensated in the way that you, that you deserve exactly.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

You can't work. Yep. So, so what we'll do is whatever of our expenses, you know, we'll, we'll notify the vet, Hey, like, we're gonna do this opinion. It costs X amount of dollars. We're gonna pay it. You know, we think it'll win your case. At which point you'll get a nice chunk of back pay. And then we're going to ask for it to be repaid if we win. But we are of the mindset where if we recommend something be paid out, and our recommendation is such that you don't win, we're gonna eat that cost cause, right. You know, if I'm recommending you spend $2,000 and then you lose, you're gonna be like, okay, well, I would've never did this on my own. And you told me, right. So, and, and that's fair. And

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

So there's really no risk for a veteran,

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

No risk, no

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Risk to give you a call and at least see, or even go through the process of seeing if there can be some sort of a reversal there's no up for, there's no risk in it for them.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Exactly. And here's the, here's really kind of what I'm finding. You know, I've been doing this long enough where I've seen thousands of case files. Right. And and here's what I'm finding is that a lot of vets, right. When they got out applied for all these different things that were bothering 'em, you know, there may be a list of 20 different things. And of that list, only five got approved. And some, maybe even got approved at a 0% and then they just don't do anything for 10, 15, 20 years. Which I get, because you know, you're young and you're like, oh yeah, the VA is paying me this, this is wonderful. I'm living, living good. I'm getting this extra money I'm working. But then there's, you know, what, what a lot of people don't think about is, you know, you're gonna get older. Your body's only gonna get worse. All of these things that maybe are just slight annoyances now could turn into very serious conditions and, and what,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

And you may need to Reeva and your slight back pain. Yes.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Could, you know, from schlepping around a pack for years, you know, could become a serious issue at which point, you know, it started, it wouldn't have happened if you wouldn't have served. Yep. And even though it wasn't a huge, huge issue, maybe just a nagging little pain here and there, they service can acted, it rated it at 0%, cuz it wasn't, you know, affecting your life that badly. Yep. And 10 years down the road, you're bent over 90, 90 degrees. Most of the time you can hardly get around. So they're still, they're still responsible for that situation. So it may not be that they got it wrong to begin with, but they may need, it could change to adjust your, your, your rating and level of compensation. Is that what you're saying?

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

That's true. And, and, and the, and the interesting thing you know, is that the VA will sure enough, schedule you a future exam. If you've got a high rating, right. To reevaluate you, you got a hundred per, they might say, okay, well, you gotta come back in five years is see if you're still a hundred percent. Well, if 0%, they're not gonna say, Hey, you gotta come back in five years to say, if, to see if you're worse, that's, that's not how they work. Like you have to let them know. And one thing that's sort of sort of interesting is there was a case I believe in 2012 that came down through the courts where it, it deals with pain because what ended up happening is, is pre 2012, you got a 0% rating on physical conditions, such as like musculoskeletal joint issues. If you didn't have the sufficient loss of motion, you know, because everything with the VA is, is based on when it comes to musculoskeletal is based on your range of motion.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right? My, my shoulder. Yep. For example, the range of motion, that's what I was, they brought me into, had two doctors and they said, you know, move here, push here, move here. They had a little pro tractor out to measure the, you know, how many degrees I can move my shoulder back or whatever.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

So if you don't meet the requirements for a 10% based on range of motion, what was supposed to happen is, is if there's painful motion, you would get at least a 10%. So like every major joint you would get at least a 10%. If, if there was painful motion, even if you didn't meet the even if you didn't meet the requirement with the, they call it, I think it's, it's either pronounced goniometer or goniometer. It's okay. The protractor thing. Sure.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

So they would use this device and yeah, if it's, if it's not enough of a loss of motion, you might have a disability, but it's a 0%, which is 0% is, is important because it allows you to get treated and they've already admitted. There's an issue. So when it gets worse, you don't have to fight that whole causation fight. But what ended up happen is two in prior to 2012, the painful motion required objective evidence of painful motion. Okay. In your exam, there was a checkbox, you know? And, and it's so funny because I'm like reading the remarks of the exam. Yeah. This guy complains a pain all the time. It flares up, he can't move, blah, blah, blah. Then is there objective evidence of painful motion on this exam? No,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

No, no, because in the office he didn't scream or win some pain while moving his or her elbow.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah. Yeah. Which is kind of funny, cuz it's objective evidence of subjective complaint anyways

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

VA for, yeah.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

But anyways, so, so you would, you'd read all these documents and, and they're, the vets are complaining of paying this and paying that and I can't do this. I can't do that 0% because no objective evidence. Of course. So in 2012 they loosen that requirement to where, you know, they're able to give you the painful, even if it just sort of describes painful motion. Sure. There's no objective evidence. So a lot of people pre 2012 that were rated zero. If you just go back in, you're almost guaranteed to get a, at least a 10% for that issue.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Anything that comes out now, that's a musculoskeletal that you've, that's recently been rated since 2012 and as a 0%, like

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

It's worth the look,

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

My head explodes. When I read those decisions,

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

You're telling me that this person and has a service connected joint condition, you've already admitted. There's a condition and you've already admitted the service caused it. And you're saying that this person never has pain in that joint. Like, I don't know. I have pain. I have no conditions. I have pain in my joints all the time. I mean like, you know, right. I can't imagine someone who's actually gonna out something diagnosed in that joint. Never having pain. Right, right. Yeah. It's it's weird. Cause it doesn't have to be debilitating pain debilitating. It doesn't have to be constant pain. It doesn't have to be throbbing pain. It doesn't have to be a 10 on the pain scale. All

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Just has to be pain. Just

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Has to be pain. Yeah. You say, Hey, I have pain sometimes. Boom, 10%. So for,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

For someone who's worked, as long as you have doing this on one side of the table and then on the other side of the table, you've kind of, you've seen it all. You understand the process from sun up to sun down the whole thing. And I'm sure you like with the pain, there are certain trends that come in and out, you see the VA acting a certain way for certain decisions and then that'll change the next year or over a decade. I mean, you've been doing this for a long time. What trends do you notice now? Hot issue right now is cancer and lung related issues associated with exposure to burn pits. And there's, there's some upcoming executive orders and, and, and directives coming down. What is it that primarily, are there any other trends that you're seeing things that folks that may have a claim or a zero rating or a dismissed or a denied claim that they should be aware of?

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah, here here's a couple of things. And, and the burn pit thing is gonna be huge. I mean, we've been screaming about burn pits at the top of our, our lungs forever. And it, and you know, there is a good list of stuff that they're gonna recognize as presumptive, which means basically that list. If you have that and you were in affected area, you don't get a medical opinion linking it's called presumptive, like similar to agent orange. Like if you have agent orange and you have prostate cancer, you don't have to get, go to a doctor to say, Hey, did my agent orange exposure? Cause this prostate cancer that's not. Oh,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Wow. So, so if you had, if you have verified exposure to agent orange and you ended up with prostate cancer, they just assumed that connection.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

So assumed yep. Same with, and that's

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Where they're, that's where they are or where they're getting to be with burn pit and certain cancers. That's

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Where they're getting to be with burn pits. And that list of cancers that you saw, there's probably about seven or eight. I think it was like different types of lung cancer, small cell. There was like a, I think esophageal, not esophageal, but like Aaryn cancer just all stuff related to the respiratory system. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, I have there's the, that stuff that folks were breathing over there was so bad. I mean there, there's going to be many other conditions that come out. You know, I have several cases where I'm trying to link, you know, brain cancer and, and I think that's actually what president Biden's son died of. And he was over there, you know, so that, you know, that that stuff is out there and there is, there is medical evidence of a link. It's just not to the point where the VA is willing to say, Hey, we're just gonna give it to you without a, without an opinion.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

But right now, if I'm a veteran who has cancer of any of those kinds and was exposed, you know, and was deployed and exposed to an area where there was a burn pet, I should be calling a guy like you,

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

You should be calling me or you should at the very least get your claimant because it's not, it's not, not finalized yet. But if you wait until it's finalized, you're gonna lose effective date coverage. You're gonna lose the, the you may lose the back pay. You may lose some of your back pay. Yeah. Cause

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

You only get back paid up to the day that you file the claim.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah. As the, okay. Under all circumstances, the first date filed for a particular condition is the furthest back that they're gonna go.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Not like I was by a burn pit in 2009. So you gotta pay me until then. It's like for the day that I file.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

No, if you never filed it. Yeah. You're never gonna get paid that far back. So, so get that filed. The other thing I, I, I really wanna stress is that even though they come out with these lists, there still are so many more conditions that are potentially related. So, you know, it always helps even if you, you know, even if you've got something that's not on that list to have someone take a look with like, Hey, is there any studies that show, like I said, brain cancer is caused by these, you know, cuz they can, they sort of know what chemicals were potentially in that, that burn pit smoke. And you can look then into the studies of those particular chemicals as to how they affect the body. And it, it only makes sense, right? Like if, if you're breathing an it's causing lung cancer, you know that it's not like, you know, your lungs are this you know, impenetrable latex thing or, you know what I mean? Like it's so right.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

It follows. Yeah. Well and 10 years down the road, they could be like, okay, well now we've discovered that colon cancer yeah. Can possibly be resultant from, and here you had filed a claim 10 years ago and they hadn't seen the connection then 10 years from now, maybe they see the connection and they owed you and, and could potentially owe you a huge payout. Is that

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Exposure cases. I, you know, the VAs probably if they're, if they watch us ever, they're gonna be very mad at me, but like anything that I'm suffering from, if I was exposed, I'm filing for it. Even if there's no evidence right now. And I'm any expo, any, any chemical exposure, like if you were a firefighter and you were exposed to the firefighting phone, I'm filing it. If I was in camp Lajune and I had the and filing,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right. If you had any sort of, if you lived on base near in, in the same state as any military water, water issues. Yes. File.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah. I mean, they'll probably say no at first, but the studies just keep coming out and as more and more vets are getting sick, so sick more and more studies are being commissioned. And A lot of times you can like I said, you're never gonna get paid back to the earliest you're ever gonna get paid is back to the date. You first file. So I'm getting everything in there. If I'm a vet and having those types of exposures.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

And if someone's file for the very first time you can do it yourself through your E benefits portal or it's not it's they don't use E benefits anymore. The, the va.gov, correct. You can file it yourself. However, I personally, and you can correct me cuz you're the expert here. I personally, you can set up an appointment for DAV American Legion VFW, any of those veteran services officers, the certified folks for free and their job is to help you file that claim. And they understand that language. I would never file a claim without their help personally, would you suggest the same?

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

I agree. A hundred percent. I you know, and, and a lot of people will U will use them for appeals too. I personally believe that they are wonderful and amazing at the getting the paperwork filed for

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

An initial claim.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Initial claims. It's still good. Yeah. They know everything about it. Like that's, that's a no brainer to me. And if I and even sometimes if the appeal is just like, Hey, we didn't get your medical records. That might be a fine time to use them too. Here's when it's here's when I think going to an attorney is, is really a good idea. Number one would be my number one and biggest probably recommendation is if you've had a CMP exam, a comp pen, and that examiner gave you an adverse opinion

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Like a non-service connection.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah. So like, you know, you go in and, and they use like using the back example. Okay. You file your claim for your back. The VA says, oh look, it, you complained of back pain when you were in the service. Boom. Step one of the puzzle is, is complete. Oh, by the way, you're also treating at the VA. So you have a current condition. Step two of the puzzle is complete. Now the last piece of the puzzle is is the opinion. And this is where it gets tricky is, you know, cuz it's an opinion. You can't say they're wrong, like

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right, right.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Can't be right or wrong. Right. It's just their opinion. Who's more persuasive is, is sort of the the analysis. But if you've only got one opinion, it's the most persuasive opinion because it's an opinion, right? The only time the opinion can flat out be wrong is if one, if they misstated the evidence or two, the evidence was not given to them, you know, such that they can't consider the evidence. That's the point when it's wrong. So when, when there's actually been a comp pen exam and you're still not happy with the results, that's when I think, you know, getting an attorney involved. And a lot of times at that point, we'll either find the actual mistake with the opinion such that we can tell the VA, Hey, this opinion actually is wrong. I can demonstrate that it's wrong because they didn't have this or that or the other thing.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right. If they have a doctor who renders an opinion that a, a doctor, the VA by renders an opinion saying this you know, we acknowledge you have back pain, but it's not service connected. It is really, really hard at that point to go back to the same VSO and, and they can file an appeal for you. But it's real in my experience, from what I've heard working with countless veterans, it's really hard to get them to like, you need a little bit more fire power to get that reversal. Yeah. And same with, if they say, yes, it's service connected, but it's not bad enough, 0%, 10%. But you're at like, you know, you're 70, 80, 90%, you need more firepower. You need somebody like Jim and Taback law. Like you just, you need it. The, the VSOs are amazing, but that's not what they're best at, in my opinion, it sounds like that's what you're saying too.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah. Well, and, and what ends up happening is, and you know, it sucks that it's about money, but to fight these cases cost money sometimes, you know, and American Legion, they don't have a budget to spend on expert opinions, you know, right. There may be studies that they have that are just general blanket studies, but that doesn't count for

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

An individual,

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

An individual because you need a, a literal opinion that this person had this experience and his current condition, his or her current condition is specifically related. You know, it's, it's, it's gotta be very specific and there's language that's required too. So, so that's when I think that it really is something that an attorney is, is best equipped to handle is when, when you kind of, you've kind of get a, all of the evidence that is available to you, given it to them and they get to the point where it's sufficient, cuz they're not. So the other thing is the, VA's not gonna ask for an opinion because they have to pay these people, these doctors.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

And, and there's been a lot more outsourcing of these opinions. I'm sure. You know, as many of you know, and I don't remember Adam, if you had gone to an outsource opinion like through LHI or V E

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

I had. Yep.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah. So, I mean, they paid per opinion, so they're not going to request that opinion unless the first two pieces of the puzzle are apparent, you know? So if they've gotten to the point where they're getting an opinion, they're saying, Hey, yeah, you've got a condition and I see something that's in service that is likely to cause a condition like that. And then, you know, if you get a, if you get a a bad opinion, a lot of times, it, it's very funny because as I, I did worker's comp for the first part of my career too. I didn't have that many veteran clients. So I also did worker's comp and these opinions are getting more and more like, like adverse workers, comp opinions, where, you know, the insurance company sends you to one of their doctors and they say, oh yeah, I know you slipped and fell while you were working. However, you're 48 years old and you've

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Just brained your ankle in middle school. So

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah. Or you've got age related arthritis and I know it wasn't hurting prior to that fall, but it just happened to be that that condition manifested at the exact same time you fell. I, I don't get it, you know?

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right. Yeah. Just, just at that one moment.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah. Right. So so yeah, it's very much, you know, become that kind of a game. And, and, and that's what what ends up happening in these opinions is that a lot of times they're relating it to something else which maybe is partially true, but you know, there's no requirement that your service has to be the 100% cause of your condition. Hmm. You know, if it

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Be a contributor

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah. Contributor or you know, or, or even just accelerated the preexisting condition, a point where it's it's come on a little worse and quicker than it would have otherwise like

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

An exacerbator. Is that a word?

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yes. Yeah.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

An exacerbator.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah. I would say it is

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

I feel like I could ask you, I could talk to you for hours and just ask questions and, and you'd have a captive audience, you know, like our constituents, they, they want to hear about this. Oh, we, we have a question from Keith. Sorry. I missed that. My friend, it said any advice on this VA's new guidance on tin tonight, sleep apnea and P T S D. And we should do a disclaimer. This is this is not medical or legal advice here. So he, he would be speaking in generalities.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

So you know, the VA's new guidance on this hasn't really affected what I've been doing because we've been doing everything the way, you know, we've been winning these cases that prior to the guidance and, and one of 'em is, you know the the ringing in the ears affecting mental health and you know, and PTSD being linked with sleep apnea. And and quite frankly, the other way around too, is sleep apnea, get exacerbating symptoms of PTSD and depression and all that stuff.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

And sleep apnea has been connected in a lot of studies to depression, anxiety ADHD, and the other way around. And I mean, it's like countless connections, and that's another reason why you would go get more firepower for something like this is you know, finding those correlations. If you do an appeal or an initial claim through a VSL, they're not necessarily going to be able to say, like, look, we have found here, sleep, sleep apnea, connected to depression or ADHD or depression to tenitis or PTSD, or any of those things. Somebody who can, who can connect those dots for you. So if what you're asking is Keith, you know, what's, does the new guidance affect something that Jim does maybe not, but would it make it easier, pat for an initial claim? Yeah. To be substantiated accurately potentially, but you still may need the fire power.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

And, and to be honest, you know, everything is still gonna require those medical opinions. So the, the biggest piece of the puzzle is when you're going for your medical opinion. So I guess I do have a little vice you need to, you need to really tell how the one condition is related to the other, you know, I mean if you're claiming that your sleep apnea is related to depression or PTSD, and when you're talking with that examiner, you, you should try to make sure that that, that condition comes up in the conversation, you know,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

And don't try to be a tough guy or a tough guy or gal, but veterans are guilty of that. Like, if you have a compend examination or some sort of examination, be candid, this is your opportunity to talk like don't exact, we're not asking anybody to fabricate anything to get a higher claim, but like, and they'll be able to see right through that most of the time, but like be candid and talk about like, this is what I'm experiencing, and this is how I think this relates to this,

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

You know, one thing that's kind of interesting. And, and it's, it's a very sad story. And, and it really made me think about like my veterans, cuz so many veterans have the tinnitus and the ringing in the, you know, elaborate

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

For tinnitus.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Yeah. A lot of people say, so

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Not hearing loss. Yeah. Accidentally.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Right. No, I know. And, and that

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Apparently the tin is service connected, but the hearing loss, not so much,

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

That's a whole nother story, but You can, and you can Google this. I don't remember who it was, but there was just a story that came out the other day about the founder of some, I think it was a restaurant who had long COVID and as a result of the long COVID had severe debilitating tinnitus.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Whoa.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

You know, to the point where he took his own life, because he could not live with the ringing in his ears anymore.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Holy cow.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

And it made me think of like, you know, it made me sort of think of like our, our veteran and who many already, because of their service have struggles with mental health, depression, anxiety, PTSD, what you name it.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Yeah. You add nonstop ringing to that.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

They're adding nonstop ringing to the point where, you know, maybe they can't sleep. Maybe they can't concentrate, you know? I mean wow. And it it's something. And, and this is one thing that my firm and, and I do wanna bring this up that we really focus on is like, you know, a vet comes in and tells us what they wanna appeal. Right. Like we call 'em, Hey, I got to deny my PTSD. I wanna appeal it. Okay. We can do that. But what I'm also going to do is I'm going to ask you, okay, well you have PTSD, but what else is going on in your life? What other conditions are you being for? You know, are you being treated for anything like diabetes, heart disease bad knees, bad back, what else had, and, and on top of that, what else had you applied for in the past that you denied were denied and maybe either gave up or, you know, just forgot about because you know, a lot of times we, as people get tunnel vision, right? Like this is in front of me. I last week I was denying my PTSD. This I wanna appeal, this is a bull crap. That's all I'm gonna talk about when I call the attorney, my PTSD. But when I get into a file and my staff, we are, we I've trained them. And we're working to think of the veteran, the health as kind of a more, the whole person type of holistic

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Picture. Yeah.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Because, and, and here's some of the cases that I've been winning lately because, you know, you can't always rate these conditions in a vacuum. Right. You know you know, physical conditions can cause mental health conditions, mental health conditions can lead to well, physical and mental health conditions can lead to, you know, not making the best choices or not being a, a able to you know, exercise and, or, you know, sanitary lifestyle, maybe eating habits that aren't perfect. And as you're dealing with these conditions over a long period of time, things happen, you know, you might gain weight as a result of that. You might get diabetes or you might get heart disease or, you know, any number of things. And, and if you, if you can show a link back to that initial condition, and like I said before, it doesn't have to be the 100% cause of your condition. Like if you are, if, if your service connected condition even contributes to you know, to the like I said, the Ary lifestyle or the weight gain, and you result in these other conditions by law, that's actually a service related because, you know, had you not had this previous condition, you know, maybe you would have those other conditions. Maybe you wouldn't have

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Maybe the, a domino effect there for

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

Sure. Maybe they wouldn't be as bad as they're. So, one thing that I would urge veterans to really think about, and, and the veterans law really is one of the only injury or disability laws where it's actually the standard of proof allows you to make these kind of connections, think about how your whole life has been affected by whatever's going on. You know I all the time find when, when I have veterans with severe physical issues, you know, how is that affecting you mentally? You know, and I, I don't mean to like continuate that there's anything wrong there, but I think about myself and like, you know, what do I love to do? I love to do certain things. What if all of a sudden I had this disability and I couldn't do any of that, how would that, how would I feel about that?

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

I would not be happy. What if I couldn't work? How would I feel about that? I would, again, you know, it, it would be rough, you know, to, to have to deal with that. And you know, and, and the other thing to think about too, is that the, the veteran benefits schedule allows for 10, 20, 30% disability. So, you know, don't have to be completely disabled, right? Like you don't even have to talk about being completely disabled to be eligible. You could just say, Hey, this kind of bothers me. You know, maybe it affects me in a certain way. Maybe it's only a 10%, you know, or it's higher. It, it doesn't, you know, that's the other thing I hear all the time. Oh, it's not that bad. Well, the law doesn't require it to be that, that bad,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Right. Just has to be there.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

It has to be there and guess what? It might get worse. And you know, and here's the other sad truth is that the longer you wait, the harder it is to prove that it's related. Right.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

So when in doubt, I mean, overarchingly, if anybody gets anything from this dialogue and it's been very informative, have been very helpful, but file your claim. It doesn't matter who you, I mean, I would suggest you do it through a VSO. Like I personally like the DAV VFW and American Legion are great as well. I mean, I got my, I got my, my DAV card right here. You know, I'm a, I'm a card lifetime member. Yeah. So I'd suggest doing that.

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

The county, the county guys are really good too.

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Yep. Your, your county, every county has their own veteran services officer, like get, get, get it filed. And if you need, if, if you need help, if you don't like the, the response, sometimes you bring in more firepower and Jim and payback law. I mean, I, like I said, I've, I'm, I'm not getting paid to say this. I personally use him and his team. I've been very satisfied so far. Very, very satisfied. So they're, they're good people over there. Jim, I, I, this is, we could do this for hours. Maybe we should have a monthly segment or something I really appreciate. Yeah. Appreciate your time and everything. Any closing thoughts you wanna impart on our, on our listeners or viewers?

Jim Brzezinski - Tabak Law:

You know, I would just say reiterate, like you said, in the beginning that you bought and paid for these benefits as veterans, this is not a handout. It's not us feeling so for anyone and it, it's not it's you paid for an insurance policy by saying, I will give everything up into and including my life for this cause. And as a result of that, you earned and deserve not only all of our respects, but these benefits that you were promised,

Adam Braatz - WVCC:

Man, super good information in, in there across the board. What a great interview, great guy, big fan of Jim and his team over there. Taback they do this every day and all day. And, and whether you're in this area or not, they're people like him who have devoted their careers to helping veterans in your area, they're, they're EV they're everywhere. Please don't leave these benefits on the table and don't feel self conscious about seeking them out. And if you get an answer that you feel might not be just from the department of veterans affairs, don't be bashful about ensuring that they, that they got it right. And if they didn't making sure that they get it right, Appreciate you tuning in, see you next week. Thank you for listening to Wisconsin veterans forward, brought to you by the Wisconsin veterans chamber of commerce. Please visit us at wiveteranschamber.org. Don't forget to subscribe to this podcast, leave a rating and review in whatever platform you're listening through.