If you’re one of the 8,580 veterans in Boston who show up in the latest five-year Census figures with no service-connected disability rating, and the reason is a claim the VA got wrong…
Or if you’re one of Boston’s 3,253 veterans who do report having a rating but yours is lower than it should be given your medical condition…
Hill & Ponton’s mission is to win these exact cases (and we’ve doing it for 40 years, with a 96% success rate). Our VA-accredited disability lawyers spend every working day on appeals for veterans the VA turned down or underrated.
We know the evidence the VA wants to see, the errors that end cases, and the experts who can close the gaps. Wherever your health problems began, Hanscom’s flight line or a burn pit half a world from home, we’ll help you get a fair rating, with nothing paid upfront.
Our Legal Services for Boston Veterans
- Disability Compensation: We help you win both the monthly check your condition truly merits and the back pay accrued since the effective date.
- VA Disability Appeals: We rebuild denied and underrated claims from the record up, then argue them through whichever appeal lane fits the case.
- Rating Increases: When symptoms outgrow the rating, we assemble the newest medical evidence and pursue the rating percentage that fits the current situation.
- Individual Unemployability: TDIU exists for veterans whose service-connected conditions ended their working lives, and it pays at the 100% rate without the 100% combined rating.
- Special Monthly Compensation: Blindness, loss of use of a limb or an organ, or needing help with daily living can add Special Monthly Compensation, which pays above the standard 100% rate.
- DIC and Survivor Benefits: When service causes a veteran’s death, the surviving spouse, children, or parents can claim Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, accrued benefits, and more.
Your Rating Translated into Dollars
The VA pays by percentage: each service-connected condition receives one, and the combined figure decides the monthly tax-free deposit. But the VA’s math whittles each added condition, so the total is lower than a simple sum, and one wrong percentage affects every payment.
Monthly disability compensation amounts at each rating for a veteran with no dependents:
- 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
Massachusetts has veterans benefits of its own, including a $2,500 annual annuity for veterans rated 100% service-connected and tiered property tax credits.
Work with us to get your Benefits
Toxic Exposure at Military Bases Around Boston and Elsewhere
Fort Devens, Hanscom Air Force Base, and the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station are all toxic sites with EPA Superfund listings, and veterans who served there (or any other base with toxic contamination) could be entitled to VA disability benefits.
- Hanscom Air Force Base (Bedford): On the National Priorities List since 1994, with 22 identified possible contamination sources, from fire-training areas to solvent, waste-oil, and jet-fuel disposal, and a PFAS investigation in progress.
- Fort Devens (Devens, 35 miles west of Boston): A Superfund site since 1989, contaminated with arsenic, lead and other toxins.
- South Weymouth Naval Air Station (Weymouth, about 15 miles southeast): Listed in 1994, with PCBs, arsenic, and dioxins under investigation at its landfill, and PFOS and PFOA on the base’s record.
Boston veterans are often exposed to hazards from burn pits, Agent Orange (for Vietnam veterans), or other dangerous substances at far-off duty stations. Our lawyers have decades of experience connecting illnesses to the toxins that caused them and winning compensation for the affected veterans.
What Does It Take to Win a VA Claim?
- A diagnosis – current medical records naming the condition.
- An event – an injury, illness, or exposure established through service records or credible statements.
- The link between the two (nexus) – a clinician’s opinion putting the condition “at least as likely as not” down to that event.
VA raters grant service connection when the claimant can prove all three elements, and deny when any one is missing. Our VA disability attorneys build files and legal arguments that answer all the requirements.
Tell us about your case
When Do You Need a Lawyer?
Boston veterans handle plenty of first claims solo and win them. But once the VA denies service connection or assigns a rating that doesn’t reflect the severity of the medical condition, you need an experienced law firm on your side.
Three routes exist out of an unfavorable VA decision: a Higher-Level Review of the file, a Supplemental Claim with new evidence the VA didn’t see before, or a Board of Veterans’ Appeals docket in front of a judge. Our disability attorneys can choose the best path for your situation and argue the case on your behalf.
VA law is always evolving , and so do we; we stay on top of every fresh regulation or court holding that helps a client. If you’re feeling stuck after a VA decision, let us help you move forward. The evaluation is free and there’s no cost to you unless we win your case.
VA Facilities in Boston
- Boston VA Regional Benefit Office – The VA’s regional benefits office for the area, in the JFK Federal Building. 15 Sudbury Street, Boston, MA 02203. National benefits line: 800-827-1000
- City of Boston Veterans Services – The city office connecting veterans and their families with the services and resources they’ve earned. 26 Court Street, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02108. Phone: 617-635-3026
- Jamaica Plain VA Medical Center – VA Boston’s campus inside the city, on South Huntington Avenue. 150 South Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02130. Phone: 617-232-9500
- West Roxbury VA Medical Center – A second VA Boston medical center campus, on VFW Parkway. 1400 VFW Parkway, West Roxbury, MA 02132. Phone: 617-323-7700
- Boston Vet Center – Confidential readjustment counseling at no cost, kept off the VA medical record. 7 Drydock Avenue, Suite 2070, Boston, MA 02210. 24/7 Vet Center line: 877-927-8387
Homeless Veteran Help in Boston
Boston’s Continuum of Care counted 175 veterans among 5,540 homeless residents in the 2025 Point-in-Time census, taken January 29. But many more are at risk, particularly when disabled and/or unemployed.
VA Boston homeless veteran care pairs HUD-VASH rental vouchers with case management, adds Grant and Per Diem transitional housing and Health Care for Homeless Veterans outreach, and folds in job programs and addiction and mental health treatment.
At Hill & Ponton, we do our part by prioritizing homeless and at-risk veterans. We know that a VA check that didn’t come is often behind a housing crisis. If you were denied, stalled, or underrated, tell us about the claim: it costs nothing to review your case and if we choose to handle the appeal the fee comes out of a win or not at all.
Meet Our Expert Legal Team
VA disability attorneys and professionals championing veterans in Boston, Massachusetts and coast to coast.
Let Us Fight For Your Benefits
Need help appealing a VA decision? Contact our VA disability lawyers for a free evaluation of your claim.