Before a unit deploys, someone checks every item against the packing list, because the thing left behind is the thing you can’t get in the field. A VA claim that was denied or underrated often comes down to the same kind of problem: one missing record, or one medical question nobody answered. An appeal is your chance to find it and put it in the file.
Hill & Ponton has successfully represented veterans and their survivors since 1986. Our VA-accredited attorneys practice disability law exclusively, we’ve won 96% of the cases we’ve taken on, and no attorney fee is owed unless your appeal is granted.
We particularly focus on assisting veterans affected by toxic exposure, from Agent Orange to radiation. By September 2023, the VA had received more than 12,700 PACT Act claims from Minnesota veterans seeking benefits for toxic exposure. If yours was one of them and the decision went against you, or if any other claim came back denied or rated too low, we’ll help you win the compensation you deserve.
Our Legal Services for Minnesota Veterans
- Disability Compensation: We review whether each of your service-connected conditions received a rating, whether each rating matches your medical record, and whether your retroactive benefits begin on the right date.
- VA Disability Appeals: We break down the reasons the VA gave for its decision, find the evidence or law the VA misread, and prepare the appeal around those points.
- Rating Increases: Symptoms that have progressed since your last exam can justify a higher percentage. We document how your condition limits you now and file for the increase the rating criteria allow.
- Special Monthly Compensation: If you’ve lost a limb or the use of one, lost your sight, or rely on someone else for daily care, you may qualify for extra compensation. We identify every SMC level your disabilities support and challenge the VA when it leaves one out.
- Individual Unemployability: TDIU can bring your payment to the 100% level if service-connected disabilities prevent substantially gainful work, even though your combined rating is below 100%. We gather the medical opinions and job history the VA looks for.
- DIC and Survivor Benefits: If service played a part in a veteran’s death, the family may be owed DIC or other survivor benefits. We represent spouses, children, and dependent parents whom the VA denied.
What Compensation and Benefits Are Available to You?
Your VA rating, on a scale of 0% to 100% in 10-point steps, determines the size of the tax-free compensation payment you get each month.
When you have several service-connected conditions, the VA merges them with its combined ratings table, which measures each added rating against the portion of your health the earlier ratings left untouched. The combined figure comes out below the plain sum, so it’s important to maximize the rating for each condition.
A single veteran without dependents currently receives these monthly amounts:
- 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
Minnesota State Benefits
The VA pays more at qualifying ratings to veterans who support a spouse, children, or parents, and it updates the whole schedule for the cost of living every year.
Minnesota adds its own state benefits for disabled veterans, including a homestead market value exclusion, free vehicle registration for veterans rated 100% permanent and total, a free state park pass, hiring preference points, and more.
Work with us to get your benefits
When Should You Hire a VA Disability Lawyer?
Legal help makes the biggest difference after the VA has decided your claim and you disagree with the result. The decision letter starts a limited window for asking for a review, so the sooner a lawyer is involved, the more options stay open.
In a case we take on, a VA disability lawyer can:
- Obtain your full claims file and compare it with the reasons in the decision
- Identify factual mistakes and rating criteria the VA misapplied
- Decide, based on what went wrong, whether you should choose a Higher-Level Review, a Supplemental Claim, or a review by the Board of Veterans’ Appeals
- Meet every deadline and keep your earliest possible effective date intact
- Argue your case before a Veterans Law Judge
Hill & Ponton wins 96% of the cases we take on. If you’re weighing the various appeal options, start with a free case evaluation. Ask early, because the more time left before your deadline, the more room there is to build the record.
Winning VA Appeals in Minnesota
Service connection requires three elements, and an appeal succeeds when the record proves each one:
- Current diagnosis: A medical provider has diagnosed the condition you’re claiming, and your records show you still have it.
- In-service event: Service records or treatment notes document what happened to you in uniform, or people you served alongside describe it.
- Nexus: A qualified medical professional concludes that service at least as likely as not caused or worsened the condition, and explains the reasoning.
Much of that evidence may already exist: VA treatment records in Minneapolis or St. Cloud, notes from a private doctor, and service records held by the government. When the file still lacks a nexus, a medical opinion from a qualified outside provider can supply one.
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Toxic Exposure Claims
Environmental records at several Minnesota military sites document contamination that can support a claim if you served there. Under the PACT Act, the VA extended health care and benefits to more veterans with burn pit, Agent Orange, and other toxic exposures, and it screens every enrolled veteran for toxic exposure. At a stateside base, a claim usually depends on proving you were exposed and getting a medical opinion that ties the exposure to your diagnosis.
- Minneapolis-Saint Paul Joint Air Reserve Station: Between the Minnesota River and Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the station’s small arms range landfill took in wastes including painting sludge and leaded aviation gas sludge from 1963 to 1972. EPA’s 2023 review recommended PFAS sampling because PFAS had been found at the nearby Air Force Reserve base.
- Camp Ripley: Camp Ripley, near Little Falls, is where the Minnesota National Guard trains. Orders and training records that place you at Camp Ripley are exposure evidence if you later file for an illness tied to your time there.
- Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant: On the New Brighton and Arden Hills Superfund site, listed in 1983, the Army disposed of waste at 14 locations between 1941 and 1981. EPA names TCE, PCE, vinyl chloride, 1,4-dioxane, PCBs, and metals among the groundwater contaminants, and ATSDR reports strong evidence that TCE can cause kidney cancer.
- Naval Industrial Reserve Ordnance Plant: This 83-acre former Navy plant in Fridley stands about 700 feet from the Mississippi River. EPA found TCE in its groundwater in 1981, and the groundwater portion of the site remains on the National Priorities List.
- Duluth Air National Guard Base: The Minnesota Department of Health lists this base as one of three Minnesota sites where PFAS spread far enough that state officials tested nearby residential wells. ATSDR reports that high levels of PFAS exposure may increase the risk of kidney and testicular cancer.
Toxic-exposure illnesses can surface long after discharge, and by then the VA may be quick to dismiss the link to a base. If your exposure claim was denied, you can appeal that decision, and our lawyers are ready to fight for the benefits you’re owed.
VA Lawyers and Legal Resources Near You
Minneapolis
St. Paul VA Regional Benefit Office: 1 Federal Drive, Fort Snelling, St. Paul, MN 55111 | Phone: 800-827-1000
Duluth
St. Louis County Veterans Service Office: 4815 Burning Tree Road, Suite 100, Duluth, MN 55811 | Phone: 218-725-5285
VA Facilities and Veterans Services in Minnesota
Veterans Service Offices
- County Veterans Service Officers: Look up the veterans service officer for your county in the Minnesota Association of County Veterans Service Officers directory.
- LinkVet: A statewide phone line for veterans and their families, 1-888-546-5838.
- St. Paul VA Regional Benefit Office: VA benefits help at Fort Snelling, weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Walk-ins are welcome; bring a photo ID for security screening. 1 Federal Drive, Fort Snelling, St. Paul, MN 55111. Phone: 800-827-1000.
VA Medical Centers and Clinics
- Minneapolis VA Medical Center: One Veterans Drive, Minneapolis, MN 55417. Phone: 612-725-2000.
- St. Cloud VA Medical Center: 4801 Veterans Drive, St. Cloud, MN 56303. Phone: 320-252-1670.
- Albert Lea VA Clinic: 2115 East Main Street, Albert Lea, MN 56007.
- Bemidji VA Clinic: 1217 Anne Street NW, Bemidji, MN 56601.
- Brainerd VA Clinic: 722 Northwest 7th Street, Brainerd, MN 56401.
- Ely VA Clinic: 720 East Miners Drive, Ely, MN 55731.
- Fergus Falls VA Clinic: 1205 West Lincoln Avenue, Fergus Falls, MN 56537.
- Fort Snelling VA Clinic: 1 Federal Drive, Fort Snelling, MN 55111.
- Hibbing VA Clinic: 990 West 41st Street, Suite 88, Hibbing, MN 55746.
- Lyle C. Pearson Community Based Outpatient Clinic: 1400 Madison Avenue, Suite 502, Mankato, MN 56001.
- Maplewood VA Clinic: 3100 Kennard Street, Suite 100, Maplewood, MN 55109.
- Max J. Beilke Clinic: 410 30th Avenue East, Alexandria, MN 56308.
- Minneapolis VA Clinic: 1201 Harmon Place, Suite 103, Minneapolis, MN 55403.
- Montevideo VA Clinic: 814 North 11th Street, Montevideo, MN 56265.
- Northwest Metro VA Clinic: 7545 Veterans Drive, Ramsey, MN 55303.
- Rochester VA Clinic: 3551 Commercial Drive South West, Suite 400, Rochester, MN 55902.
- Shakopee VA Clinic: 1555 Lusitano Street, Shakopee, MN 55379.
- St. James VA Clinic: 1103 13th Avenue South, St. James, MN 56081.
Vet Centers
- Anoka Vet Center: 700 East Main Street, Anoka, MN 55303. Phone: 763-503-2220.
- Duluth Vet Center: 4402 Haines Road, Suite 3, Duluth, MN 55811. Phone: 218-722-8654.
- Twin Cities Vet Center: 2113 Cliff Drive, Suite 100, Eagan, MN 55122. Phone: 612-243-7920.
Housing Support for Homeless and At-Risk Minnesota Veterans
Veterans who are homeless or about to lose housing can get help from VA Minneapolis health care’s homeless program, including food and shelter right away, transitional or permanent housing, job training and education, help re-entering the community after jail, financial support to prevent homelessness, treatment for addiction and depression, and health and dental care. The program is directed from the Community Resource and Referral Center in downtown Minneapolis, reachable at 612-313-3240.
HUD’s 2025 Point-in-Time count for Minnesota recorded 233 homeless veterans across the state. Many more veterans may be doubled up with relatives or one missed paycheck away from losing their homes, and they don’t show up in that count.
Money you should be receiving from the VA can decide whether you keep a place to live. If a denial or a low rating is holding back that money and you’re without a stable place to live, or close to losing one, Hill & Ponton gives your appeal priority, and it costs you no attorney fee unless we win.
Meet Our Expert Legal Team
VA attorneys and case professionals representing veterans from the Twin Cities to the Iron Range and nationwide.
Let Us Fight For Your Benefits
Need help appealing a VA decision? Contact our Minnesota disability lawyers for a free evaluation of your claim.