Billings is home to more veterans than any other Montana city, roughly 8,500 in all, and the Census puts 5,873 of them without any service connected rating at all. If you’re among them and you think it’s because the VA denied a claim that deserved to be approved, we can help you turn it around.
Another 2,660 Billings veterans already have a disability rating, but some are stuck at a percentage much too low compared with what they cope with daily. We work to get those numbers corrected.
Hill & Ponton attorneys are VA-accredited and have an exclusive focus: denied and underrated claims, taken up on appeal. We know what convinces the VA and what trips a claim up.
Reviewing your case is free, and we only collect a fee if we win. If the VA has turned you away, reach out and let us help you find the way back.
Our Legal Services to Billings Veterans
- Disability Compensation: We go after the entire monthly payment a service-connected condition should yield, along with the back pay that built up while the VA dragged its feet.
- VA Disability Appeals: Denials and lowball ratings are our core work. We reopen the file end to end, obtain the evidence and expert opinions the VA never bothered to gather, and reframe the claim into the case it should have been from day one.
- Rating Increases: A condition that has grown worse since your last rating deserves a fresh look. We gather the updated evidence and push for the steeper rating (and the bigger check) your worsened condition now warrants.
- Individual Unemployability: If your service-connected limits rule out a full workweek, TDIU pays at the 100% level even if your combined rating never reaches it. We assemble the employment and medical record the claim depends on.
- Special Monthly Compensation: The most severe disabilities, from the loss of a limb to blindness or a condition that calls for daily aid and attendance, can unlock Special Monthly Compensation, paid above the normal 100% cap.
- Survivor Benefits: If a service-connected illness claims a veteran’s life, their surviving family may have a path to Dependency and Indemnity Compensation and other survivor benefits.
How Much Will Your VA Rating Pay?
The VA scores every service-connected condition somewhere from 10% to 100%, climbing by tens, and that score decides the size of your tax-free monthly check.
When you carry several ratings, the VA does not add them straight up. It combines them with a formula that often catches veterans off guard, one more reason a precise claim pays off.
For a quick estimate of what your ratings should total, run them through the VA disability calculator.
For a single veteran and no dependents, the current monthly figures look like this:
- 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
Supporting a spouse, children, or a parent raises the amount, and a yearly cost-of-living increase lifts it further.
On top of federal pay, Billings veterans receive Montana state benefits, which include property tax breaks for those with qualifying disabilities.
Work with us to get your Benefits
Winning Claims for Toxic Exposure On or Off Base
For most veterans, the exposure that later makes them sick usually traces to somewhere they were stationed. Within Montana itself, that can be Malmstrom Air Force Base outside Great Falls, or Limestone Hills Training Area outside Townsend, where decades of firefighting foam left PFOS and PFOA in the groundwater.
Far more often, the exposure happened at another base or overseas, from Agent Orange in Vietnam to asbestos used on ships, or burn pits and airborne hazards now recognized under the PACT Act. Wherever a toxic exposure connects to your condition, a prior denial is not the final word, and our attorneys have spent years proving those links and recovering what veterans and their families are owed.
What It Takes to Have a Winning Claim
The VA weighs every claim against the same three tests, and falling short on any one tends to bring a denial.
- A current diagnosis – a medical provider, VA or civilian, confirms in writing that you have the condition now.
- An in-service cause – the record shows an injury, illness, event, or exposure during service that could plausibly have set it in motion or intensified it.
- A medical nexus – a qualified expert connects the two, concluding “at least as likely as not” that service is to blame. That link is where most claims succeed or fail.
Our VA disability attorneys grasp how the VA scrutinizes a file, the points where claims usually collapse, and how to build one that finally shows what you carry every day.
Tell us about your case
Should You Hire a Lawyer for Your Appeal?
Many Billings veterans file their claim alone, and that’s a great first step. But it all changes after a denial, or a rating with no relation to your daily struggle.
Helping veterans navigate the maze of the disability claims process is the whole reason Hill & Ponton exists. When a claim stalls over missing proof or an inexplicable decision, we dig into the record, find what failed, and rebuild it. We have done this for veterans nationwide, and we are ready to do it for the Billings community.
Our attorneys follow every change in VA disability law, from new policy to appellate rulings, and use it to chase the higher ratings, unemployability, and special compensation that may be yours. When the rating is plainly wrong, or the VA refuses you outright, we step in to fight on your behalf.
VA Facilities in Billings, MT
- Montana Veterans Affairs Division, Billings Service Office – State service officers who help area veterans file and manage VA claims at no cost. 1500 University Drive, College of Education Building, Room 114, Billings, MT 59101. Phone: 406-248-8579
- Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow VA Clinic – The primary-care home of the VA Montana Health Care System in Billings, with primary care, pharmacy, rehabilitation, and imaging. 1775 Spring Creek Lane, Billings, MT 59102. Phone: 406-373-3500
- Benjamin Charles Steele VA Clinic – Local VA specialty and behavioral health clinic, covering mental health, addiction treatment, dental, and a range of specialty services. 1766 Majestic Lane, Billings, MT 59102. Phone: 406-373-3500
- Billings Vet Center – Free, confidential counseling for PTSD, MST, and the readjustment to civilian life. 2795 Enterprise Avenue, Suite 1, Billings, MT 59102. Phone: 406-657-6071
Help for Veterans Facing Homelessness
The VA Montana Health Care System coordinates homeless-veteran services out of its Billings clinics, joining HUD-VASH vouchers and case management with Health Care for Homeless Veterans and Grant and Per Diem transitional housing, along with mental health and addiction treatment and support returning to work.
And while VA and government programs work to provide these veterans with lasting housing, plenty of times we have traced a household’s housing crisis straight back to a denied or delayed disability check. For that reason, veterans on the edge of homelessness get our priority at Hill & Ponton.
Has the VA stalled, denied, or shortchanged your claim? We can help you fight back, with no cost up front and a fee only when your appeal wins. Call us, and a review of your claim will cost you nothing.
Meet Our Expert Legal Team
VA Disability Attorneys and professionals championing veterans in Billings, Montana and nationwide.
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Need help appealing a VA decision? Contact our VA disability lawyers for a free evaluation of your claim.
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