For 40 years Hill & Ponton has been helping veterans overturn unfavorable VA decisions: our VA-accredited lawyers focus exclusively on appealing denials and increasing ratings. If you’re among the estimated 1,072 Hartford veterans who have no service-connected disability rating and the reason is a claim the VA should have granted (but didn’t), we are ready to stand with you.
With a 96% success rate on the cases we take, we’re proud to stand with Hartford’s veteran community, bringing the dedication, compassion, and experience needed to take on the VA and win. We start with a free evaluation of your claim and only get paid if we win your case. No upfront costs, no strings attached. You owe us nothing unless the appeal succeeds.
Our Legal Services
- Disability Compensation: A granted appeal sets a monthly figure going forward and a second figure looking backward, and the retroactive award can extend back to the date the claim should have succeeded.
- VA Disability Appeals: A denial letter is our starting point. We read the decision against the file, identify the proof the rater treated as missing, and put that proof in front of the next decision-maker.
- Rating Increases: Conditions worsen and old percentages stop describing them. We document the current severity against the rating criteria and pursue the higher tier that fits.
- Special Monthly Compensation: Loss of a limb, lost vision, a housebound existence or daily dependence on another person can lift a veteran’s award to Special Monthly Compensation, a payment tier beyond the published rate for a percentage.
- Individual Unemployability: Steady work put out of reach by service-connected conditions can bring payment at the 100% rate through TDIU even when the combined percentage sits lower. Documenting the work history and pairing it with a medical opinion is how the claim is won.
- DIC and Survivor Benefits: A death traced back to a service-connected condition opens Dependency and Indemnity Compensation to the family a veteran leaves, and documenting the medical link is our part of it.
What Does a VA Rating Pay?
Each service-connected condition is rated from 0 to 100 percent, and the compensable percentages combine into the tax-free figure paid every month. A condition that falls short of the compensable threshold is rated at 0%, which keeps it service-connected without paying on it.
VA math applies each condition after the first to what remains of the veteran, so a second 30% rating never adds a full 30 points, and one percentage judged too low pulls the whole award down for as long as it stands.
What the VA pays at each level, for a veteran claiming 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
Connecticut has its own veteran benefits added to the federal programs and resources. The Office of Advocacy and Assistance inside Connecticut Veterans Affairs keeps accredited Veteran Service Officers who helps veterans file initial claims and access state and federal programs. Hill & Ponton assists those who were denied or underrated.
Work with us to get your Benefits
Exposure Claims from Bradley, Windsor Locks and Groton
The Connecticut Air National Guard base at Bradley International Airport and the Army Aviation Support Facility at Windsor Locks both stand in Hartford County, and the Defense Department has PFAS investigations open at each. Service at either one, or at the submarine base down on the Thames, belongs in a claim.
- Connecticut Air National Guard base at Bradley International Airport: The EPA lists the base at East Granby in Hartford County as a federal facility under a state-lead cleanup. The FY 2024 Department of Defense PFAS testing report records the PFAS preliminary assessment and site inspection there as finished in December 2021, a remedial investigation as required, and that investigation as under way since September 2024.
- Army Aviation Support Facility, Windsor Locks: The Connecticut Army National Guard facility in Windsor Locks, also in Hartford County, completed its PFAS preliminary assessment and site inspection in January 2022. Per the FY 2024 Department of Defense PFAS testing report, a remedial investigation was required and has been under way since September 2022, with completion estimated for September 2029.
- New London Submarine Base: EPA’s cleanup profile describes a 576-acre site on the eastern bank of the Thames River in Groton and Ledyard holding three landfills, chemical storage sites and tank farms, with a final National Priorities List date of August 30, 1990. Between 1957 and 1973 VOCs, pesticides, PCBs and spent battery acids were buried below the water table in an 11-acre landfill beside wetlands, and 1988 Navy sampling revealed lead, cadmium and pesticides in sediments and surface water. PFAS remedial investigations are open at the fuel storage tanks and the base fire department.
Hartford veterans also file exposure claims from far outside Connecticut: Agent Orange in Vietnam, Camp Lejeune’s water supply, Gulf War hazards, and the burn-pit illnesses the PACT Act moved onto the presumptive lists. A toxic exposure claim rests on tying the illness to the place, and a denial from years ago can be reopened once that link is documented.
The Evidence Behind a Granted Claim
Service connection asks a Hartford veteran to establish three things at once, and a weak showing on any one of them is enough for the VA to refuse.
- A present diagnosis – records from a treating physician, VA or private, that name the condition being claimed.
- An event during service – the injury, illness or exposure itself, shown through service records, unit histories or statements from people who were there.
- A medical link joining the two – an opinion from a qualified examiner placing service behind the condition “at least as likely as not.” A file can carry the diagnosis and the service record and still be refused for want of this opinion.
Our VA disability attorneys read files for a living. We can usually name the missing element on a first pass, and we know the record request or the examining specialist that closes the gap.
Tell us about your case
Do Hartford Veterans Need a Lawyer to Appeal?
A Hartford veteran can appeal without a lawyer, and plenty file the first claim on their own. After a refusal the case rests on choosing the right review lane, meeting its deadline, and supplying the exact proof the last decision treated as absent.
A Higher-Level Review puts the existing file in front of a senior reviewer with no new evidence allowed. A Supplemental Claim exists for evidence the VA has never seen. An appeal to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals brings a Veterans Law Judge into it. Each lane repairs a different kind of error.
Sending a strong case down the wrong lane costs months, and a missed deadline can cost the effective date that sets back pay. Choosing among the three review lanes is a call we make daily, alongside the court decisions and regulation changes that shift what a claim needs.
Having us look at your decision letter costs nothing, and a fee exists only if the appeal succeeds. Send the letter over and we will tell you plainly what the VA decided and what can still be done about it.
VA Offices and Veteran Services Around Hartford
- Hartford VA Regional Benefit Office at Newington VA Clinic – Regional Office public contact and Veteran Readiness and Employment services, in Building 2E, 4th Floor. 555 Willard Ave, Newington, CT 06111. National benefits line: 800-827-1000
- Newington VA Clinic – A VA outpatient clinic under VA Connecticut Healthcare System, on the Newington campus it shares with the benefits office. 555 Willard Avenue, Newington, CT 06111. Phone: 860-666-6951
- Hartford Vet Center – Confidential help at no cost in a non-medical setting, including counseling for depression, PTSD and the psychological effects of military sexual trauma. 25 Elm Street, Suite A, Rocky Hill, CT 06067. Phone: 860-563-8800. After-hours call center: 877-927-8387
- West Haven VA Medical Center – The medical center at the head of VA Connecticut Healthcare System, handling inpatient and specialty care the clinics refer out. 950 Campbell Avenue, West Haven, CT 06516. Phone: 203-932-5711
- Connecticut Veterans Affairs, Office of Advocacy and Assistance, 1st District – Accredited Veteran Service Officers who prepare benefit claims and represent veterans on VA compensation. 196 West Street, Rocky Hill, CT 06067. Phone: 860-616-2336
- Connecticut Veterans Affairs main campus – The state agency’s headquarters in Rocky Hill, which administers Connecticut’s veteran programs, from the Wartime Service Medal to veteran license plates and the veteran indicator on a driver’s license. 287 West Street, Rocky Hill, CT 06067. Phone: 860-616-3600
Housing Programs Open to Hartford Veterans
The Connecticut Balance of State Continuum of Care, whose territory takes in every city and town in Hartford County, found 132 veterans among 2,958 people living without a home in the 2025 Point-in-Time count of January 28.
VA Connecticut homeless veteran care answers a Hartford veteran losing their housing with immediate food and shelter, transitional housing and then a permanent place, money aimed at heading the loss off altogether, treatment for addiction and depression, job training, and help re-entering the community from jail.
Federal housing programs sit behind much of that help. HUD-VASH pairs a rental voucher with VA case management, and Grant and Per Diem funds transitional beds and the services attached to them. A veteran who needs either can reach the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 877-424-3838, staffed around the clock.
Compensation the VA owed and never paid can sit underneath a housing crisis. A Hartford veteran in that position has an appeal worth filing as well as a housing application.
Denied, waiting too long, or rated below what the condition costs you? Bring the appeal to Hill & Ponton: the review is free, nothing is due up front, and we are paid only if you win.
Meet Our Expert Legal Team
VA disability lawyers and case staff who take the VA on for veterans in Hartford, Connecticut and in every other state.
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Need help appealing a VA decision? Contact our VA disability lawyers for a free evaluation of your claim.