Did the VA deny a condition caused by your military service, or rate it well below what it keeps you from doing? A decision like that can hold back the money and care you counted on, sometimes for years.
Hill & Ponton’s VA-accredited attorneys have fought for veterans and their survivors since 1986, and our firm is entirely dedicated to disability law. Of the cases we accept, we win 96%, and you’ll pay us only if we win your case.
In fiscal year 2024, the VA processed 16,654 disability claims from Nebraska veterans, with an overall grant rate of 66.7%. If yours was one of the claims that didn’t go your way, or you received a rating that doesn’t reflect your condition, reach out to us for a free case evaluation to see how we can help.
Our Legal Services for Nebraska Veterans
- Disability Compensation: We look for unrated conditions, percentages that don’t match your medical evidence, and a start date the VA put too late, then pursue the monthly compensation and retroactive pay you should be receiving.
- VA Disability Appeals: We match the VA’s reasons for denial against your service and medical records, gather what answers them, and present the appeal in the review lane that fits.
- Rating Increases: Ask for a re-evaluation when a condition worsens, and we’ll show how it has changed and request the increase your symptoms now support.
- Special Monthly Compensation: Amputation, blindness, or daily reliance on another person’s help may entitle you to Special Monthly Compensation. We make sure the VA awards the level your disabilities support.
- Individual Unemployability: Veterans whose service-connected disabilities rule out substantially gainful work can be paid at the 100% rate through TDIU. We assemble the medical opinions and job history for that claim.
- DIC and Survivor Benefits: A death caused or hastened by a service-connected condition can make Dependency and Indemnity Compensation payable to the spouse, children, or parents. We pursue those claims and challenge the VA when it refuses.
What Compensation and Benefits Are Available to You?
Every service-connected condition is rated between 0% and 100%, in steps of 10, and the percentage determines your tax-free monthly compensation.
Two or more ratings are combined with the VA’s combined ratings table instead of simple addition, which is why a 30% and a 40% rating don’t produce 70%. Our VA disability calculator shows the combined result for your ratings.
Today’s 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
Supporting a spouse, kids, or a dependent parent raises the payment at qualifying ratings, and the VA raises every rate each year with the cost of living.
Nebraska also offers benefits for disabled veterans, including a homestead property tax exemption, tuition waivers for dependents, state hiring preference, a free lifetime hunting and fishing permit for qualifying ratings, and more.
Work with us to get your benefits
When Should You Hire a VA Disability Lawyer?
The point of bringing in a lawyer is when a VA decision arrives and you think it’s wrong. From that date you have a limited time to ask for a review, and the review lane you pick controls what evidence you can use.
Choosing How to Challenge the Decision
- Supplemental Claim: Fits a case that needs new and relevant evidence, for example a nexus opinion or treatment records the VA never saw. Our Supplemental Claim guide covers what qualifies.
- Higher-Level Review: The claim goes to an experienced reviewer who decides it again on the existing evidence, which fits a decision that misread what was already there.
- Board Appeal: Your appeal goes to a Veterans Law Judge, who can review the record as it stands, accept more evidence, or hold a hearing. The Board process is the most formal of the three.
Not certain which lane suits your decision? A free case evaluation is a good place to start. The choice affects how long the appeal takes and what the VA will consider, so it pays to decide early. If we take your case, we handle the filing, the deadlines, and the VA’s requests from there.
Winning VA Appeals in Nebraska
The VA connects a disability to your service when your file shows three elements. The first is a current diagnosis: a doctor, VA or private, has identified the condition you’re living with and put it in writing.
The second element is what happened during service, whether an injury, illness, event, or exposure, documented by service treatment records, a personnel file, deployment history, or a buddy statement. The third is the nexus, a medical opinion that the condition is at least as likely as not tied to that event and that explains its reasoning.
If your file is missing the nexus, or the one in it is not up to VA standards, we can help you obtain an independent medical opinion to address the specific reason for the denial.
Tell us about your case
Toxic Exposure Claims
Nebraska’s military sites include two former ammunition plants on EPA’s cleanup list and air bases that have been sampled for firefighting-foam chemicals. The PACT Act opened VA health care and benefits to many more veterans exposed to toxins, from burn pits to Agent Orange, and VA health care enrollees are screened for toxic exposure. A claim tied to a stateside base usually needs proof of the exposure and a medical opinion linking it to your diagnosis.
- Camp Ashland: Nebraska National Guard’s Camp Ashland Training Site in Saunders County is being investigated for PFAS contamination.
- Offutt Air Force Base: In 2020, Offutt and state environmental officials carried out a screening-level site inspection at several spots on the Bellevue base where firefighting foam was once used or stored. EPA links PFAS exposure to an increased risk of some cancers, including prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers.
- Former Nebraska Ordnance Plant: This munitions plant near Mead operated from 1942 to 1956 and joined the National Priorities List on August 30, 1990. Its treatment plants pull TCE and the explosive RDX out of the groundwater, and ATSDR reports that RDX affects the nervous system and can cause seizures in large amounts.
- Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant: Built in 1942 on 12,042 acres near Grand Island, the plant has been on the National Priorities List since 1987 for an explosives plume in its groundwater. In 2026, EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers finalized a cleanup plan that uses native bacteria to treat that plume.
- Nebraska Air National Guard Base: Home to the 155th Air Refueling Wing at the Lincoln airport. The Air National Guard sampled soil, groundwater, surface water, and sediment near the base, and the state environment agency reports that PFAS were detected in the military sampling it is now evaluating.
An illness tied to one of these sites can take decades to appear, and by then the VA may question the connection. If your exposure claim was denied, the decision can still be appealed, and our lawyers will fight for the benefits you’re owed.
VA Lawyers and Legal Resources Near You
Omaha
Douglas County Veterans Service Office: 1111 S 41st Street, Suite 110, Omaha, NE 68105 | Phone: 402-444-7180
Lincoln
Lincoln VA Regional Benefit Office: 3800 Village Drive, Lincoln, NE 68516 | Phone: 800-827-1000
VA Facilities and Veterans Services in Nebraska
Veterans Service Offices
- Nebraska Department of Veterans’ Affairs, State Service Office: 3800 Village Drive, Lincoln, NE 68516. Phone: 402-420-4021.
- Nebraska Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Central Office: 301 Centennial Mall South, 4th Floor, Lincoln, NE 68509. Phone: 402-471-2458.
- County Veterans Service Officers: The state’s directory of county service officers, who can help you file claims and apply for Nebraska Veterans Aid.
- Lincoln VA Regional Benefit Office: Weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 3800 Village Drive, Lincoln, NE 68516. Phone: 800-827-1000.
VA Medical Centers and Clinics
- Omaha VA Medical Center: 4101 Woolworth Avenue, Omaha, NE 68105. Phone: 402-346-8800.
- Grand Island VA Medical Center: 2201 North Broadwell Avenue, Grand Island, NE 68803. Phone: 308-382-3660.
- Bellevue-Longo Drive VA Clinic: 2206 Longo Drive, Suite 102, Bellevue, NE 68005.
- Holdrege VA Clinic: 1118 Burlington Street, Holdrege, NE 68949.
- Lincoln VA Clinic: 420 Victory Park Drive, Lincoln, NE 68510.
- Norfolk VA Clinic: 3204 Raasch Drive, Norfolk, NE 68701.
- North Platte VA Clinic: 300 East 3rd Street, Suite 302, North Platte, NE 69101.
- Omaha VA Clinic: 825 Dorcas Street, Suite 200, Omaha, NE 68108.
- Sarpy County VA Clinic: 1330 Jersey Street, Papillion, NE 68046.
- VA facility locator: Clinics in western Nebraska are run by neighboring VA systems; search by town to find the closest one.
Vet Centers
- Lincoln Vet Center: 211 South 84th Street, Lincoln, NE 68510. Phone: 402-327-9727.
- Omaha Vet Center: 2132 South 42nd Street, Suite 1, Omaha, NE 68105. Phone: 402-346-6735.
Housing Support for Homeless and At-Risk Nebraska Veterans
A care coordinator with VA Nebraska-Western Iowa homeless veteran care can line up emergency food and shelter, help moving into transitional or permanent housing, job and life-skills training, justice-system and re-entry support, money to head off homelessness, addiction and depression care, and medical and dental treatment. But the long term solution is financial stability.
HUD’s 2025 Point-in-Time count for Nebraska found 141 homeless veterans statewide. Many others may be sleeping on a relative’s couch or one missed payment from eviction. If a denial or low rating is costing you income you need to stay housed, Hill & Ponton moves your appeal forward first. Tell us about your housing situation when you contact us; our fee depends on winning, so you pay nothing unless your appeal is granted.
Meet Our Expert Legal Team
VA disability attorneys and case professionals representing veterans from Omaha to the Panhandle 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.