If you’re among the veterans across the Fairbanks North Star Borough who were denied VA disability… or one of the estimated 3,206 veterans across the borough who have a disability rating but it sits well under what your condition actually costs you…
Hill & Ponton stands with you. Our firm’s VA-accredited disability attorneys are exclusively focused on overturning denied claims and fixing ratings that came in too low.
Because we handle every case by phone and email, the long distances and isolation never have to stop you. Whether your disability began on a deployment far from Alaska or worsened after you settled in the Interior, we can take the case and move it forward without you leaving home, and we are paid only out of a successful appeal.
Our Legal Services to Veterans and Their Families
- Disability Compensation: We push for the maximum monthly compensation a service-connected condition can bring, plus the back pay owed back to the day your eligibility first opened.
- VA Disability Appeals: A wrongful denial or a too-low rating is precisely what we handle. We reopen the entire file, track down the records and opinions the VA itself never sought, and rebuild the claim into the case it should always have been.
- Rating Increases: When a condition worsens past the VA’s last rating, we document the change and chase the higher percentage, and the bigger monthly payment, you now have coming.
- Special Monthly Compensation: The most disabling injuries or illnesses can qualify a veteran for Special Monthly Compensation beyond the usual rating ceiling.
- Individual Unemployability: When service-connected conditions rule out keeping a steady job, TDIU pays at the full 100% level even when the combined rating sits lower. We assemble the proof such a claim needs.
- Survivor Benefits: Should a service-connected condition prove fatal, the family left behind, a spouse, a child, a parent, could pursue Dependency and Indemnity Compensation and other survivor benefits.
How Much Is a VA Rating Worth?
The VA grades each service-connected condition on a scale from 10% to 100%, climbing in ten-point steps, and that figure sets the tax-free monthly payment you receive.
Stack up more than one rating and the VA does not just sum them; it runs them through a combined-ratings table that usually comes out lower than expected, so maximizing the rating for each condition is essential.
Want to see what your combined rating pays? Try the VA disability calculator.
The monthly rate for one veteran claiming no dependents can reach almost $4000 for a 100% rating.
- 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
Federal compensation is not the whole story. Fairbanks veterans can also receive Alaska’s own veteran benefits, such as property tax exemptions tied to a qualifying disability rating.
Work with us to get your Benefits
Wining Toxic Exposure Claims
The Fairbanks area carries one of Alaska’s heaviest concentrations of military contamination. Two nearby installations have decades of documented pollution, and a veteran stationed at either who later developed an illness may have grounds to file.
- Fort Wainwright: An EPA Superfund site since 1990, with fuels and industrial solvents in the soil and groundwater, plus PFOS and PFOA from firefighting foam at levels well above federal limits.
- Eielson Air Force Base: An EPA Superfund site whose firefighting-foam PFAS migrated off base into the wells around Moose Creek, alongside TCE, benzene, and fuel contamination.
Veterans exposed elsewhere have claims too, whether for Agent Orange, the burn pits the PACT Act now covers, or the industrial solvents used at sites like Fort Richardson and Elmendorf Air Force Base. If a toxic exposure sits behind your diagnosis, our attorneys have years of experience tracing illnesses to their source.
The Three Elements Every Winning Claim Must Show
- A current diagnosis – a clinician, VA or civilian, confirms on paper that the condition is present today.
- An in-service cause – your service record documents an injury, illness, incident, or exposure that could reasonably have brought it on or accelerated it.
- A medical nexus – a qualified expert ties the two together, deeming it “at least as likely as not” due to service. This link is where most claims are won or lost.
If any one of these is missing or doesn’t meet VA requirements, the claim will be denied.
Our VA disability attorneys read the way the VA weighs evidence, the points where claims unravel, and how to assemble one that shows the life you truly lead.
Tell us about your case
Do You Need a VA Lawyer for Your Appeal?
Many veterans take on the first claim themselves, and that often works. The turning point comes with a denial, or a rating that overlooks how hard daily life has become, and that is when experienced counsel makes a big difference.
At Hill & Ponton, we stay current on every change in VA disability law, whether from new regulations or rulings out of the appeals courts, and put it toward the rating increases, unemployability awards, and any special compensation that may be yours.
A review of your situation is free, and we collect a fee only on a win. If the VA has frozen you out, contact us and we’ll help you get back in.
VA Resources for Fairbanks Veterans
- Fairbanks VA Clinic – The Alaska VA Healthcare System’s Interior clinic, with primary care, mental health, audiology, and women’s health close to home. 2555 Phillips Field Road, Fairbanks, AK 99709. Phone: 907-328-1750
- Fairbanks Vet Center – Free, private counseling for PTSD, MST, and the readjustment home, separate from VA medical records. 751 Old Richardson Highway, Fairbanks, AK 99701. Phone: 907-456-4238
- Alaska Office of Veterans Affairs – The state agency that coordinates accredited service officers to help veterans file claims is located roughly 360 miles south in Anchorage. 4600 DeBarr Road, Suite 180, Anchorage, AK 99508. Phone: 907-334-0874
Assistance for Veterans Facing Homelessness
The Alaska VA Healthcare System helps homeless veterans by combining HUD-VASH rental vouchers, VA case management, Health Care for Homeless Veterans, and Grant and Per Diem transitional beds, and steering them toward counseling and addiction recovery.
In 2025, the Alaska Balance of State Point-in-Time count, the HUD region spanning Fairbanks and the rest of the Interior, recorded 39 veterans with no place to stay on a single night. But many more could be at risk.
We have seen, more than once, a family’s slide into homelessness start with a check the VA wrongly withheld. That is why veterans without secure housing are first in line with us at Hill & Ponton.
If the VA denied your claim or underrated it, we can carry the appeal, at no upfront cost, earning a fee only if it succeeds. Contact us for a free, no-obligation review of your claim.
Meet Our Expert Legal Team
VA Disability Attorneys and professionals championing veterans in Fairbanks, Alaska 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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