If you’re one of the 1,411 Newark veterans recorded as having a disability rating, but the level the VA assigned has never squared with how much your condition costs you day to day…
Or if you’re among the 4,105 Newark veterans without a service-connected disability rating at all and you think the VA wrongly refused a claim that deserved to be granted…
Hill & Ponton can fight on your behalf for maximum compensation. Our attorneys hold VA accreditation, and pursuing appeals for veterans who were denied or rated too low is the whole of our practice.
When your rating lands short, or the VA shuts you out altogether, we are ready to carry the case forward, and there is no fee unless your appeal prevails.
Our Legal Services for Newark Veterans
- Disability Compensation: We press for the entire monthly benefit a service-connected condition supports, plus any retroactive back pay that piled up since the date your award ought to have started.
- VA Disability Appeals: If the VA denied your claim or set the rating too low, we manage the entire appeal, studying the complete file, retrieving records that were ignored, ordering the medical opinions no one obtained, and reshaping the claim to ensure success.
- Rating Increases: Few conditions stay fixed, and most grow worse over time. Once yours has deteriorated since the VA’s most recent review, we chase the steeper rating, and the bigger monthly compensation your health now warrants.
- Special Monthly Compensation: If you live with an especially disabling injury, an amputation, loss of vision, or a condition that calls for daily assistance, you could qualify for payments above the standard rating tables under Special Monthly Compensation.
- Individual Unemployability: When steady work becomes impossible because of your service-connected conditions, the VA can pay you at the full rate even if your combined percentage falls short of 100%.
- DIC and Survivor Benefits: If a service-connected condition proves fatal, the veteran’s spouse, children, or parents may have a right to Dependency and Indemnity Compensation and related benefits. We walk veterans’ families through that process with patience and respect.
How Your Rating Becomes a Paycheck
Every service-connected condition draws a rating somewhere between 10% and 100%, set in ten-point intervals, and that number decides how large your tax-free payment runs each month. A bigger percentage means a bigger check.
If you hold ratings for several conditions at once, the VA will not simply total the numbers. Instead, it applies a combined-ratings calculation.
To preview what your particular set of ratings might add up to, plug the numbers into the VA disability calculator.
Below is what an unmarried veteran with no dependents receives monthly as things stand:
- 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
A spouse, dependent children, or dependent parents warrant higher amounts, and the VA revises them annually to keep up with rising prices.
Beyond the federal payment, veterans in Newark may also qualify for New Jersey state benefits, including property-tax relief and other programs that can ease the financial strain.
Work with us to get your Benefits
Proving a Toxic Exposure Claim
Newark and the wider region hold a deep industrial and military past, and parts of that history left hazardous contamination in their wake. Veterans who spent time at these installations, or any others, and later developed a serious medical condition may have a path to compensation.
- Diamond Alkali / Lower Passaic River (Newark): The former Diamond Alkali plant on Lister Avenue produced the 2,4,5-T herbicide that went into Agent Orange, leaving dioxin and other toxins along a stretch of river now under a federal Superfund cleanup. Veterans exposed to Agent Orange in service may qualify for benefits tied to a wide range of presumptive conditions.
- Picatinny Arsenal (Morris County, roughly 30 miles west of Newark): More than a century of weapons research and manufacturing at this Army installation left the groundwater fouled with industrial solvents, munitions residue, and the firefighting-foam chemicals PFOS and PFOA. Veterans stationed there who later fell ill should have that exposure examined.
- Naval Weapons Station Earle (Monmouth County, about 40 miles south): Ordnance handling and firefighting foam at this Navy base contaminated soil and groundwater with solvents, heavy metals, and PFAS compounds, with several wells testing above state and federal advisory levels.
- Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (about 50 miles south): Heavy firefighting-foam use drove PFOS and PFOA in base wells to some of the highest readings recorded in New Jersey, and that contamination has since migrated into nearby waters.
If your time in service routed you through any of the places above, or some other installation now tied to contamination, and you are living with a related illness today, an old denial need not be where the story ends. Our attorneys have repeatedly traced veterans’ conditions back to the exposures at fault and secured the benefits they were owed.
What a Winning Claim Has to Show
Every claim is measured against the same three-part standard at the VA. If even one part looks thin, the result is usually a denial.
- A current diagnosis – a licensed medical provider, VA or private, has to state in writing that you presently have the condition you are claiming.
- An in-service cause – your record needs to establish an injury, sickness, incident, or exposure during your service that could realistically have started the condition or made it markedly worse.
- A medical nexus – a credentialed medical expert has to establish that link, stating that your service is “at least as likely as not” the cause. This is the step that sinks the most claims, and the place where compelling medical proof is decisive.
Our VA disability attorneys understand how the agency evaluates evidence, where filings break down, and how to build a claim so the rating at last reflects the life you are living.
Tell us about your case
When Should You Get a Lawyer Involved?
Many veterans handle their initial claim themselves, which is a great way to begin. But the moment the VA turns you down, or sends back a rating that has little to do with how tough your days really are, calling in experienced counsel can change everything.
Our firm was built to walk veterans through a maze that often seems designed to confuse. When a claim bogs down behind evidence the VA never collected or a ruling that defies sense, we reopen the file, locate the break, and reassemble the case. That effort has helped many thousands of veterans nationwide, and we’re now bringing that same fight to Newark’s veterans.
We keep pace with how VA disability law evolves, from policy revisions inside the agency to rulings from the appeals courts, and we channel that into chasing the rating bumps, unemployability awards, and extra compensation you might have coming.
Looking over your case is free, and our fee comes due only after we win. If a VA decision has boxed you out, we can help you find a way back in.
VA Resources Near Newark
- Newark VA Regional Benefit Office – New Jersey’s VA claims office, where accredited service officers help veterans prepare and track disability, pension, and other benefit claims at no cost. 20 Washington Place, Newark, NJ 07102. New Jersey veterans service line: 800-827-1000
- East Orange VA Medical Center – The hub of the VA New Jersey Health Care System, this full-service hospital sits roughly three miles from downtown Newark and delivers primary, specialty, mental health, and emergency care. 385 Tremont Avenue, East Orange, NJ 07018. Phone: 973-676-1000
- Newark VA Clinic – A VA outpatient clinic in downtown Newark providing primary and specialty care close to home, housed in the same federal building as the regional benefit office. 20 Washington Place, Newark, NJ 07102. Phone: 973-645-3042
- Bloomfield Vet Center – A community-based center just north of the city offering confidential readjustment and PTSD counseling for veterans and their families, along with outreach that reaches past standard medical care. 2 Broad Street, Suite 703, Bloomfield, NJ 07003. Phone: 973-748-0980
Support for Veterans Without Stable Housing
When Essex County carried out its 2025 Point-in-Time count one night in January 2026, it recorded 75 veterans among the 2,411 people across Newark and the county with nowhere stable to live. Veterans who have lost their housing, or sense it slipping, can lean on VA programs aimed at durable housing rather than a quick overnight fix.
VA New Jersey Health Care oversees homeless-veteran services for the area, pairing HUD-VASH housing vouchers and VA case management, then backing those with Health Care for Homeless Veterans and Grant and Per Diem transitional housing. It can also steer veterans toward mental health and substance use care and support in getting back to work.
Time after time we have watched a family’s slide into homelessness trace straight back to a disability check the VA stalled or wrongly refused. That is exactly why, at Hill & Ponton, we put homeless and at-risk veterans at the front of the line.
Has the VA been denying you or holding your rating too low? Hill & Ponton is here to help you push back. Nothing is owed up front, and we are paid solely if your appeal comes through. Contact us for a no-cost look at your claim.
Meet Our Expert Legal Team
VA Disability Attorneys and professionals championing veterans in New Jersey and nationwide.
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