A service-connected condition can follow you for decades after you take off the uniform, whether it’s a back that won’t let you sleep through the night or memories that come back without warning. When the VA denies your claim or rates you far below what you live with, the letter can read like a verdict on your service itself. You can challenge that decision, and you won’t be doing it alone.
Our firm has been helping veterans since 1986, and we practice disability law exclusively. Hill & Ponton’s VA-accredited attorneys represent veterans and survivors who were denied or underrated, we win 96% of the cases we accept, and there’s no fee unless your appeal succeeds.
In 2023, the VA’s Togus Regional Office and VA Maine health care brought a benefits expo to Bangor where veterans could file disability claims, enroll in health care, and get toxic exposure screenings. If a claim you filed there, or at any other time, came back denied or rated below what you live with, you can request a free case evaluation, and if we take your case, we’ll fight for the rating you deserve.
Our Legal Services for Bangor Veterans
- Disability Compensation: If the VA left a service-connected condition off your rating decision, or dated your award later than the evidence supports, we push for the full rating and the past-due compensation you’re owed.
- VA Disability Appeals: We start with your decision letter and the evidence the VA relied on, work out why it ruled against you, and prepare an appeal aimed squarely at that reason.
- Rating Increases: Your rating should keep pace with your condition as it worsens. We document how your symptoms affect your work and daily life today and file for an increase of your rating.
- Special Monthly Compensation: Being housebound, depending on another person for daily care, or losing the use of a limb or the sight in one eye can qualify you for Special Monthly Compensation. We identify the SMC level your evidence supports and appeal when the VA doesn’t award it.
- Individual Unemployability: When service-connected disabilities have pushed you out of the workforce, individual unemployability can pay you at the 100% rate. We gather employer records, vocational evidence, and medical opinions to prove it.
- DIC and Survivor Benefits: For spouses, children, and parents grieving a veteran whose death traces to service, we pursue DIC benefits and appeal a VA denial when the evidence points to a link with service.
What a VA Rating Pays Each Month
Your VA rating, anywhere from 0% to 100% in increments of 10, determines how much tax-free compensation you receive every month.
With two or more rated conditions, the VA uses a combined ratings table that treats each added percentage as a share of what’s left, so the total comes out lower than simple addition. Our VA disability calculator does that math for you.
For a single veteran with no dependents, current monthly rates are:
- 10%: $180.42
- 20%: $356.66
- 30%: $552.47
- 40%: $795.84
- 50%: $1,132.90
- 60%: $1,435.02
- 70%: $1,808.45
- 80%: $2,102.15
- 90%: $2,362.30
- 100%: $3,938.58
Adding a spouse, child, or dependent parent increases the amount at qualifying ratings. As a Bangor veteran, you can also look into Maine’s benefits for disabled veterans, such as a state income tax exemption for VA disability compensation, a complimentary hunting and fishing license for qualifying ratings, a lifetime state park pass, and more.
Work with us to get your benefits
Toxic Exposure Claims
You don’t have to leave Bangor to find a documented contamination site: the Air National Guard base shares its grounds with Bangor International Airport. Several other Maine military sites are within a few hours’ drive.
- Bangor Air National Guard Base: Defense Department testing turned up PFAS in the soil and groundwater here, and firefighting foam is the likely source. High exposure to these chemicals may raise the risk of kidney or testicular cancer, according to ATSDR, and the crews who used the foam in firefighting were closest to it.
- Navy VLF Transmitter Cutler: Navy sampling found PFAS in groundwater beneath the NSA Cutler Fire Station, and the chemicals have also shown up in drinking water wells nearby.
- Brunswick Naval Air Station: The former Navy base has been on EPA’s National Priorities List since 1987, with chlorinated solvents and pesticides among its contaminants and landfills and an eastern groundwater plume among its cleanup areas.
- Bog Brook Training Site (Gilead): The Maine National Guard uses this training area for exercises such as the engineer and cold-weather training its soldiers held there in March 2025. Records of your training at Bog Brook can show the VA when you were on site if you pursue a claim for an illness you connect to that service.
A cancer or other illness from a toxic exposure can take years to appear, long after anyone thinks to connect it to a base. If the VA has already denied your claim, you can still appeal. If we take your case, we’ll build the exposure record and fight for the benefits you’ve earned.
What It Takes to Win a VA Claim
Service connection comes down to three elements, and the VA needs to see all of them in your file. The first is a current diagnosis: a provider at the Bangor VA Clinic, at Togus, or in private practice has named the condition you are living with now.
The second element is an event, injury, illness, or exposure during your service. Service treatment records, personnel files, deployment orders, and statements from people who served beside you can each show what happened.
The third element, the medical nexus, ties the first two together through a clinician’s opinion that service is at least as likely as not the cause of your condition.
A nexus opinion that gives a bare conclusion without reasons leaves the VA free to discount it. When your file lacks a reasoned opinion, we work with medical professionals to get an independent medical opinion that explains the connection in terms the VA has to address.
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When Should You Hire a VA Disability Lawyer?
Call a lawyer when a VA decision arrives that doesn’t match your evidence: a denial, a rating that seems low, or a TDIU or SMC request the VA passed over. The time limit to ask for a review counts from the date on that letter. If Hill & Ponton takes your case, a VA disability lawyer will:
- Request your full claims file so we see everything the VA saw.
- Find the factual and legal errors behind the decision.
- Choose the appeal lane those errors call for: new evidence through a Supplemental Claim, a fresh look at the existing file through Higher-Level Review, or a Board of Veterans’ Appeals case.
- File on time to protect the earliest effective date your record supports.
- Argue your case to the VA or to a Veterans Law Judge.
Talk to us to get a free evaluation of your case. Reaching out soon after a decision leaves more time to gather evidence before the review deadline passes. If your case is a fit, our attorneys take over the paperwork and the deadlines so you can put your energy into your health.
VA Facilities and Veterans Services in the Bangor Area
- Maine Bureau of Veterans’ Services, Bangor Office: State veterans service officers who help you file VA claims at no charge, by appointment. 35 State Hospital Drive, Bangor, ME 04401. Phone: 207-941-3005.
- Togus VA Medical Center: The VA Maine Healthcare System’s medical center in Augusta, open around the clock. 1 VA Center, Augusta, ME 04330. Phone: 207-623-8411.
- Bangor VA Clinic: Outpatient care, including mental health services, weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 35 State Hospital Drive, Bangor, ME 04401. Phone: 877-421-8263.
- Lincoln VA Clinic: Outpatient care for veterans in northern Penobscot County. 99 River Road, Lincoln, ME 04457. Phone: 877-421-8263.
- Bangor Vet Center: Counseling on Odlin Road, weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 615 Odlin Road, Suite 3, Bangor, ME 04401. Phone: 207-947-3391.
Housing Support for Homeless and At-Risk Veterans
A homeless services care coordinator at VA Maine health care’s homeless program can connect a Bangor-area veteran with emergency food and shelter, a transitional or permanent place to live, education and job training, money to head off an eviction, addiction and depression treatment, and medical and dental care.
If a denial or low rating is part of why rent is getting harder to cover, Hill & Ponton will put your appeal near the top of our list. We prioritize veterans who are homeless or close to losing their housing, and the attorney fee comes only from a successful appeal.
Meet Our Expert Legal Team
VA attorneys and case professionals representing veterans in Penobscot County, Maine and nationwide.
Let Us Fight For Your Benefits
Need help appealing a VA decision? Contact our disability lawyers for a free evaluation of your claim.