Balin meets challenges facing disabled veterans head-on

Following the May resignation of Erik Shinseki, former head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, some wondered how such a broken health care system that left thousands of veterans in the dust could even be repaired.

Answers may take time to find, but the flaws in the VA are more apparent than ever.

“We see delays at every point of the appeals process right now for veterans applying for service-connected disability,” said Matt Shupe, associate attorney at Balin Law. This compensation program provides a tax free monetary benefit paid to veterans with disabilities that are the result of a disease or injury incurred or aggravated during active military service.

Compensation may also be paid for post-service disabilities that are considered related or secondary to disabilities occurring in service and for disabilities presumed to be related to circumstances of military service, even though they may arise after service.

The primary difficulty representing veterans for Balin is the backlog of cases before the Department of Veterans Affairs. With already longstanding delays faced by veterans claiming service-connected disabilities, the culmination of two major and recent conflicts is only adding to the wait time every veteran and their representative must face.

“There’s an enormous backlog,” Shupe said. “It’s very overwhelming to them as it is to all our clients.”

When a veteran approaches Balin Law for assistance, they have already waited for a determination on their claim and have been denied. This is because attorneys are prohibited from receiving a fee for representing veterans in service-disconnected disability compensation cases until the veteran has been denied at least once. As a result, veterans must often navigate an extremely complex field of law without the assistance of a licensed attorney for months or years.

Balin Law uses every tool at its disposal and exhausts every resource to ensure the veteran is in the best position possible when the time comes to have their case adjudicated.

“The key is to over-prepare for everything,” Shupe said of Balin’s winning strategy. “Spend more time than it takes. You need to know the case better than the client, the judge and, any expert combined. If you can convey that that is your level of knowledge, it builds confidence in yourself and in the client, too.”

Balin’s winning strategy pays off

Disability in America
The increased prevalence of disability in the U.S. today cannot be overstated. According to the Social Security Administration, disability claims in 2013 totaled 2,640,100 – nearly twice as many as in 2000.

“We’re faced with a time when the baby boomer generation has been aging out,” said Matt Shupe, associate attorney at Balin Law. “Those who have performed manual labor in particular, their bodies tend to start wearing out from 54 onwards. They have a great deal of pride in their work, but also a great deal of fear with what they can do in their fifties until they meet the qualifications for SSDI.”

Complicating that fear is the constant attack on federal disability programs, which are often – mistakenly – listed as entitlements.

“The SSDI program is just an insurance policy,” he said. “These individuals are paying a premium on this policy, which comes in the form of FICA taxes taken out of paychecks.”

With SSDI claims, Balin provides clients with a questionnaire to fill out then files the application online. This saves valuable time and gives relief to clients knowing the application process is seamless.

Even after an application is filed, there can be a lengthy approval process due to the increase in baby boomers, the recent fiscal crisis and the diminished number of hours federal employees have to process these claims.

“We’re talking a year or two – or more – in particular cases, especially when issues are more mental than physical,” Shupe said. “It's easy to look at an injury and say, ‘This femur has been rebuilt.’ It’s a very different evaluation process for mental disabilities.”

Thankfully, Balin’s standard of excellence and history of winning cases sets the bar for ensuring this process goes as smoothly and painlessly as possible.

Balin’s winning strategy

“We take the hard cases,” Shupe said. “A lot of firms would look at a client and say, ‘This person’s in their thirties, sporadic work history, criminal record, or issues with alcohol or substance abuse – no way we can take this on.’ We would be an advocate for that client if we thought we could develop the facts and if the claimant was compliant with medical treatment.”

Balin’s focus on a cohesive, team-oriented approach helps clients not only win cases, but educates them about subsidized medical care programs like Medicaid for the disabled, disability cash assistance, and hospital financial aid programs.

This approach extends to clients with mental disabilities, too.

“There needs to be great communication between our staff, our attorneys and the mental health care providers,” Shupe said. “A lot of times this involves getting opinions from the treating psychologists and psychiatrists and nurses who see this person to rebut the opinion of one-time  SSA consultants who see the client and evaluate them for maybe twenty minutes, at most an hour.”

Balin also takes time to sit down with case managers and case workers to make sure a client understands an appeal is due and that new case notes and progress notes from physicians are in their file.

Additionally, clients are assigned a member of Balin’s staff to help put their mind at ease throughout the entire process, and the firm’s tireless attitude certainly accomplishes that.

“It's about managing expectations,” Shupe said. “You hire an attorney not necessarily to speed the process up but to make sure everything gets done right. Most places, five o'clock comes around and you're clocked out,” Shupe said. “Then there are people like us, where work is always on our mind. We do whatever it takes to properly win the case for our clients as early as we can.”