Since 1986, Hill & Ponton’s VA-accredited attorneys have handled appeals for veterans and surviving families whose claims were denied or underrated. We practice nothing but disability law, our success rate on the cases we take on is 96%, and we’re paid only when a claim is granted.
Our expertise includes winning appeals for veterans affected by toxic exposure, from Agent Orange and radiation to PFAS (the potentially cancer-causing chemicals for which two Lincoln sites are currently investigated). If you served in Lincoln or elsewhere and the VA turned down your claim for an illness you trace to that service, we’d be honored to help you win the benefits you deserve.
Our Legal Services for Lincoln Veterans
- Disability Compensation: A rating decision can miss conditions, understate their severity, or start payment too late. We pursue the full compensation and the retroactive benefits your evidence supports.
- VA Disability Appeals: We identify each error behind the VA’s decision, whether in the evidence it relied on or the rule it applied, and build the appeal to correct it.
- Rating Increases: When your condition has worsened, we collect current records showing how it affects your daily life and ask for the percentage the rating schedule assigns to that level, and toward a 100% rating if your evidence gets you there.
- Special Monthly Compensation: Losing a limb or your sight (blindness), or needing someone’s help every day, can mean the VA owes you Special Monthly Compensation. We check your award and appeal when it isn’t paid.
- Individual Unemployability: Veterans who can’t work steadily because of service-connected conditions may receive payment at the 100% rate through TDIU, and we pursue that claim.
- DIC and Survivor Benefits: Surviving families can turn to us for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation and related survivor benefits after a death connected to service.
What a VA Rating Pays Each Month
A VA disability rating goes from 0% to 100% in increments of 10, and it determines the tax-free amount deposited in your account each month.
With more than one rating, the VA uses a combined ratings table, so your total is less than the numbers added together. Enter your ratings in our VA disability calculator for an estimate.
Current monthly rates for a single veteran without 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
Qualifying dependents raise the monthly payment, and the VA increases the rates every year based on cost-of-living adjustment.
Lincoln veterans may also be eligible for Nebraska’s state benefits for disabled veterans, including the homestead property tax exemption, a free lifetime small game, fish, and fur harvest permit for veterans rated 50% or higher, state hiring preference, and more.
Work with us to get your benefits
Toxic Exposure Claims
The National Guard’s PFAS records for Nebraska list two Lincoln sites, the Air National Guard base at Lincoln Municipal Airport and an Army aviation support facility, among the installations under investigation. Other military bases in Nebraska have documented contamination with various toxins that veterans may have come in contact with.
- Nebraska Air National Guard Base (Lincoln airport): The 155th Air Refueling Wing’s base, where the Air National Guard has sampled soil, groundwater, surface water, and sediment. The state environment agency says PFAS were detected in the military sampling it is evaluating, and EPA associates PFAS exposure with an increased risk of prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers.
- Former Nebraska Ordnance Plant (Mead): EPA placed this 1942 to 1956 munitions plant on the National Priorities List in 1990 for groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds and explosives, and the groundwater treatment continues.
- Camp Ashland: The Nebraska National Guard’s training site near Ashland is being investigated for PFAS.
Cancers and other illnesses from exposure can appear long after service, and the VA may question a link it can’t see in your records. But a denied exposure claim can be appealed successfully with the right evidence. Our VA-accredited attorneys are ready to assist you with finding and presenting it.
What Every VA Claim Needs to Prove
For the VA to service-connect your condition, your file has to establish three elements:
- Diagnosis: A current medical diagnosis from the Lincoln VA Clinic, another VA facility, or a private doctor.
- In-service event: Proof of the injury, illness, or exposure during service, through service records or statements from people who witnessed it.
- Nexus: A clinician’s opinion connecting your condition to that event under the “at least as likely as not” standard.
Claims commonly fall short when:
- The VA’s examiner gave a negative opinion without addressing your private records.
- Your treatment history has long stretches with no explanation for the break.
- No one has written down what happened on the day of the injury.
- The exam didn’t capture how your condition behaves on its worst days.
Each of those problems can be addressed with evidence and the correct legal argument.
Tell us about your case
When Should You Hire a VA Disability Lawyer?
A lawyer helps most after the VA issues a decision you think is wrong. The review deadline counts from the date on that decision, and the sooner someone reviews it, the more choices you keep. A VA disability lawyer can:
- Obtain your claims file and read it against the decision.
- Identify the evidence the VA ignored and the rules it misapplied.
- Pick the appeal route that fits those errors.
- File on time and protect your effective date.
- Present your case to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals if it goes that far.
VA Facilities and Veterans Services in the Lincoln Area
- Lincoln VA Regional Benefit Office: VA benefits help for Nebraska veterans, weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 3800 Village Drive, Lincoln, NE 68516. Phone: 800-827-1000.
- Lancaster County Veterans Service Office: Help filing VA claims and Nebraska Veterans Aid applications, weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., closed noon to 12:30 p.m. 600 S 70th Street, Building 2, Suite 200, Lincoln, NE 68510. Phone: 402-441-7361.
- Lincoln Vet Center: 211 South 84th Street, Lincoln, NE 68510. Phone: 402-327-9727.
- Lincoln VA Clinic: Weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 420 Victory Park Drive, Lincoln, NE 68510. Phone: 402-489-3802.
- Omaha VA Medical Center: VA Nebraska-Western Iowa‘s hospital, open 24 hours a day. 4101 Woolworth Avenue, Omaha, NE 68105. Phone: 402-346-8800.
Housing Support for Homeless and At-Risk Veterans
Lincoln veterans who have lost housing, or may soon, can reach a homeless services care coordinator through VA Nebraska-Western Iowa homeless veteran care. The coordinator can help with transitional or permanent housing, immediate food and shelter, financial support to prevent homelessness, education and job training, re-entry after jail, medical and dental care, and treatment for depression or addiction.
If a VA denial or an inadequate rating is part of what’s putting your housing at risk, Hill & Ponton will prioritize your appeal. We take these cases on contingency, so you pay an attorney fee only if we win.
Meet Our Expert Legal Team
VA attorneys and case professionals representing veterans in Lincoln, Lancaster County, 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.