Almost one in three veterans in the state of Montana receive VA disability, according to the 2025 VA Annual Benefits Report. But many have been either denied or underrated. If that sounds like your situation, Hill & Ponton lawyers can help you appeal.
We are VA-accredited attorneys, and appeals are the whole of our practice. We know what the VA looks for, where claims break down, and how to put a denied or shortchanged case back together.
No matter where you live in Montana, we can represent you by phone and email, handling the entire appeal without you ever leaving home. A look at your case costs nothing, and our fee comes only with a win. If a VA ruling has boxed you out, call us, and we will work to bring you back in.
Our Legal Services for Montana Veterans
- Disability Compensation: We press for the complete monthly benefit your service-connected condition earns, plus the back pay that should reach back to your original filing date.
- Appeals: A denial or a low rating is not the end of the road. We take the appeal the whole way, rebuild the evidence behind it, and make the VA own a decision it never should have issued.
- Rating Increases: Once a condition has grown more severe than the VA’s last rating reflects, we document the decline and go after the higher rating, and the bigger payment, it now calls for.
- Total Disability Based on Individual Unemployability: When a service-connected disability makes steady work impossible, TDIU pays 100% disability benefits even when the combined rating is lower. We build the proof the claim requires.
- Special Monthly Compensation: Veterans with the gravest disabilities can be eligible for compensation above the standard 100% that a top rating alone provides.
- Survivor Benefits: Should a veteran’s death stem from a service-connected condition, a surviving spouse, child, or parent can pursue DIC and other benefits.
What Compensation and Benefits Are Available to You?
The VA disability rating drives the compensation and care you receive. The VA assigns it to reflect how much a service-connected condition limits daily life and the capacity to earn a living.
Each condition is scored between 10% and 100% in ten-point jumps, and the tax-free monthly payment rises as the number climbs.
With several conditions, the VA runs a combined-ratings formula that usually lands lower than veterans expect, so accuracy is everything; even a small rating increase can raise the monthly amount.
Here is the current monthly compensation for a single Montana 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
Cost-of-living adjustments lift these figures each year, and a veteran with dependents receives more on top of that.
Beyond federal compensation, Montana adds its own benefits for disabled veterans, spanning property tax relief, reduced license and recreation fees, and preference for state employment.
When a rating understates the real burden of a condition, Hill & Ponton can fight to raise it so none of the benefits attached to it slip away.
Work with us to get your benefits
When Should You Hire a VA Disability Lawyer?
A lot of Montana veterans handle the first claim themselves, and frequently that works. But after a denial, or a rating far below what the condition warrants, a lawyer’s assistance can change everything. The appeals process runs on tight deadlines and shifting rules, and one missed form can cost months.
A VA-accredited lawyer gives you an advocate who knows the system inside and out. At Hill & Ponton, VA disability is all we do; we concentrate on denied and underrated appeals, recover records, secure medical opinions, and show how a disability shapes a veteran’s life and livelihood.
Your VA Appeal Options
- Supplemental Claim: Submit new, relevant evidence, maybe a recent diagnosis or files the VA overlooked, and ask it to decide again.
- Higher-Level Review: Ask a senior reviewer to re-examine the file if you think the VA slipped up; no new evidence enters.
- Board of Veterans’ Appeals: The last step, offering a direct review, an evidence lane, or a hearing before a Veterans Law Judge.
If the VA keeps ignoring how much your condition costs you, we can take the wheel. We review your case at no cost and our fee depends on a win. Tell us your story to see how we can help.
Winning Your VA Disability Appeal
Plenty of Montana claims fail because the VA never got the right proof, or never connected the condition to service. A claim turns on three things:
- Current diagnosis: a licensed provider records the condition you live with today.
- In-service cause: your file points to something in service, an injury, an illness, an incident, an exposure, that could have set it off or worsened it.
- Nexus: a doctor’s opinion bridges the two, judging it “at least as likely as not” service-related.
Even a solid case can fail when one piece is weak. Montana claims often stumble over:
- No clear medical tie connecting the condition to service
- Medical records left incomplete or out of date
- Deadlines for appeals or new evidence that slip past
- VA mistakes in reading service or medical records
Hill & Ponton handles only VA disability appeals. Our lawyers work with trusted medical experts for strong nexus opinions and file every appeal complete, accurate, and on time.
Get a free case evaluation
Winning VA Disability for Toxic Exposure
Montana has fewer military installations than many states, but the ones it has, and the places its veterans served, left behind exposures that can surface as illness years later.
- Malmstrom Air Force Base (Great Falls): Firefighting foam drove PFOS and PFOA far above safe levels in the groundwater, and a federal cleanup is still underway.
- Montana Air National Guard, 120th Airlift Wing (Great Falls): A separate state cleanup review documented PFAS at multiple spots on the airlift wing’s base, with PFOS and PFOA well above Montana’s groundwater standard.
- Malmstrom missile fields (central Montana): Veterans who served on the ICBM missile crews have raised concerns about elevated cancers, and the Air Force has an active study of the issue underway.
- Limestone Hills Training Area (roughly 3 miles west and southwest of Townsend): Contaminated with arsenic, benzene, cadmium, iron, lead, manganese, and more.
Many Montana veterans, though, were exposed to toxins far from home, from Vietnam to Iraq or Camp Lejeune. Wherever a toxic exposure ties to your illness, an earlier denial need not be the final answer.
Legal Resources and Lawyers Near You
Billings
Montana Veterans Affairs Division, Billings Service Office: 1500 University Drive, College of Education Building, Room 114, Billings, MT 59101. Phone: 406-248-8579
Missoula
Montana Veterans Affairs Division, Missoula Field Office: 1911 Tower Street, Missoula, MT 59804. Phone: 406-542-2501
Montana VA Facilities Serving Veterans
Veterans Service Offices
- Fort Harrison VA Regional Benefit Office: 3633 Veterans Drive, Fort Harrison, MT 59636. Phone: 800-827-1000
- Montana Veterans Affairs Division Headquarters: 1956 Mount Majo Street, Fort Harrison, MT 59636. Phone: 406-324-3742
- MVAD Billings Service Office: 1500 University Drive, Billings, MT 59101. Phone: 406-248-8579
- MVAD Missoula Field Office: 1911 Tower Street, Missoula, MT 59804. Phone: 406-542-2501
VA Medical Center and Clinics
- Fort Harrison VA Medical Center: 3687 Veterans Drive, Fort Harrison, MT 59636. Phone: 406-442-6410
- Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow VA Clinic: 1775 Spring Creek Lane, Billings, MT 59102. Phone: 406-373-3500
- Benjamin Charles Steele VA Clinic: 1766 Majestic Lane, Billings, MT 59102. Phone: 406-373-3500
- David J. Thatcher VA Clinic: 3885 West Broadway Street, Missoula, MT 59808. Phone: 406-215-0100
- Great Falls VA Clinic: 1400 29th Street South, Suite 1, Great Falls, MT 59405. Phone: 406-771-5800
- Kalispell VA Clinic: 750 Reserve Place, Kalispell, MT 59901. Phone: 406-758-2700
- Travis W. Atkins VA Clinic: 1101 East Main Street, Suite 201, Bozeman, MT 59715. Phone: 406-582-5300
Vet Centers
- Billings Vet Center: 2795 Enterprise Avenue, Suite 1, Billings, MT 59102. Phone: 406-657-6071
- Missoula Vet Center: 910 Brooks Street, Suite 101, Missoula, MT 59801. Phone: 406-721-4918
- Great Falls Vet Center: 615 2nd Avenue North, Great Falls, MT 59401. Phone: 406-452-9048
- Kalispell Vet Center: 690 North Meridian Road, Suite 101, Kalispell, MT 59901. Phone: 406-257-7308
Housing Assistance and Support for Montana Veterans
Working out of the Fort Harrison VA Medical Center and clinics statewide, the VA’s homeless-veteran programs connect Montana veterans to HUD-VASH vouchers, Health Care for Homeless Veterans, and Grant and Per Diem transitional housing, with case management throughout. Supportive Services for Veteran Families layers on rapid rehousing and homelessness prevention across rural and urban counties alike.
Montana’s 2025 Point-in-Time count tallied 160 homeless veterans without stable housing during a single night in January. But many more could be at risk.
A denied or delayed disability payment often turns out to sit beneath a household’s housing crisis. At Hill & Ponton, we put veterans facing housing insecurity at the front and work for no fee unless your appeal wins. Get in touch for a no-cost review of where your claim stands.
Meet Our Expert Legal Team
VA Disability Attorneys and professionals championing veterans throughout Montana and nationwide.
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