Veterans & Military Families
Claims and appeals at the VA, protections while serving, and what follows discharge.
-
Veterans & Military Families
The VA Disability Claim: Evidence, Exams, and Ratings
A VA disability claim turns on three linked showings, an examination, and a rating assigned under a diagnostic code. Here is how each part works and what you control.
-
Veterans & Military Families
Appealing a VA Decision Through the Three Review Lanes
After an unfavorable VA decision you choose among three review lanes. Each accepts different evidence and produces a different kind of second look at your file.
-
Veterans & Military Families
Discharge Upgrades and Correcting Military Records
A discharge characterization or a wrong entry in a service record can be changed by application to a military board. Which board depends mainly on how long ago you separated.
-
Veterans & Military Families
The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act: Interest Caps and Stays
The SCRA caps interest on debts taken on before service, pauses civil proceedings, and lets a servicemember out of leases and phone contracts on qualifying orders.
-
Veterans & Military Families
USERRA: Reemployment Rights After Military Service
USERRA requires most employers to take a returning servicemember back promptly, in the position seniority would have reached, if notice and reporting rules were met.
-
Veterans & Military Families
Military Housing Allowances and Landlord Disputes
A basic allowance for housing belongs to the servicemember and does not make the military a party to the lease. What actually governs is the lease, federal exit rights, and state law.
-
Veterans & Military Families
Survivor Benefits and the Death Gratuity
Survivors of a servicemember or veteran may be entitled under several distinct programs at once. Each has its own eligibility test, its own claim, and its own agency.
-
Veterans & Military Families
Using the GI Bill and Transferring Benefits to Dependents
GI Bill entitlement pays tuition, housing, and books on a formula tied to enrollment. Transferring it to a dependent is a separate step with its own timing trap.
-
Veterans & Military Families
Veterans Preference in Public Employment
Veterans preference is not one rule. Federal hiring runs on OPM's point and category system, while states, counties, and cities each run their own version.
-
Veterans & Military Families
Military Divorce: Jurisdiction, Pensions, and the Frozen Benefit Rule
A state court divides a military pension under federal permission, not federal command. Jurisdiction, the ten-year rule, and the frozen benefit rule each do a different job.
-
Veterans & Military Families
Veterans Treatment Courts and Diversion for Service-Related Offenses
A veterans treatment court substitutes supervised treatment for the usual criminal track. Eligibility, structure, and the reward for completion are set locally.