Let me put my interest on the table before I say anything else.

I am a VA-accredited attorney. I run a firm that charges fees. If you read this post and decide to hire representation, there is a version of that where you hire me. So I have a stake in how you answer the questions below, and you should read every word of this knowing that and weigh it accordingly.

I am writing it anyway, because these are the right questions no matter who you choose, and because the veterans who get hurt here are almost always the ones who never asked any of them.

Are you VA-accredited

Ask it first, ask it plainly, and do not accept an answer that slides past it.

VA accredits the people permitted to represent veterans in claims and appeals. That covers three groups: representatives at veterans service organizations, VA-accredited claims agents, and VA-accredited attorneys. I have written a separate post comparing the three, because they are genuinely different jobs with different training and different strengths, and the right answer depends on what your case actually needs.

What matters here is the floor beneath all three. Accreditation is checkable. It is not a claim you have to take on faith, and anyone who is accredited will tell you so without hesitating.

So if somebody offers to prepare, review, or handle your VA claim and is not accredited, that is the end of the conversation. This includes consultants and coaches who charge for claim help while carefully describing themselves as something other than a representative. The careful description is the tell.

How do you get paid

Ask it in exactly those words and listen for whether you get a plain answer back.

Different answers are legitimate. VSO representatives provide their services free. Accredited agents and accredited attorneys may charge fees, under legal restrictions on when a fee can be charged at all. Fees, where they apply, are commonly contingent on past-due benefits, which means the fee depends on the result and comes out of retroactive money rather than out of your monthly budget.

Follow up with the questions underneath the question:

• Is your fee contingent, and contingent on what
• At what stage of my case can a fee be charged at all
• What expenses are separate from the fee, and who pays them if we lose
• Will the fee agreement be in writing, and can I take it home before signing

Anyone who tells you what a case like yours costs before looking at your actual case is guessing. And if a fee question makes someone uncomfortable, that discomfort is itself useful information.

Will you read my C-file

This is my favorite question, because the answer separates people faster than any other.

The claims file is VA's complete record on you. It contains the examination reports in full, the code sheets behind every rating, the records VA requested and what actually came back, and the letters VA mailed to addresses you may never have lived at. The decision letter is a four-page summary of a record that may run to thousands of pages.

Almost every real defect I have ever found in a case was visible in the file and invisible in the letter. So ask whether the person will get the C-file, whether they will read it, and roughly when. Ask what they expect to look for in it.

You are not testing their loyalty. You are finding out whether their opinion will be based on the record or on the summary.

Who will actually handle my file

The person in the first conversation is not always the person doing the work, and that is not automatically a problem. Firms and organizations have staff, and good staff do a great deal of the real work well.

It becomes a problem when nobody tells you. So ask directly:

• Who is my day-to-day contact, and who supervises the case
• Will an accredited representative personally review my file and the filings that go out under my name
• How do I reach a human being, and what is a realistic response time
• How will I be told when a decision arrives

That last one is not a customer service question. A decision starts a one-year clock, and a representative who cannot reach you when the letter lands is a representative who cannot protect that year.

What happens if I want to leave

Ask this while everyone is still getting along. It is worthless as a question after things go wrong.

You are entitled to change representatives. What you want to know before you sign is how that works in practice: how you revoke the appointment, what happens to the fee agreement, whether any fee has already been earned on work done, and how quickly your file gets released to whoever comes next.

A straight answer here tells you a lot about the whole relationship. Somebody who has thought about the exit has usually thought about the rest of it too.

Two things that should stop you cold

Most people in this field are honest. Two behaviors are not, and they show up often enough that every veteran should know them by sight.

Anyone who guarantees an outcome. Nobody can promise you a rating, a percentage, a grant, or an amount of back pay. Not a VSO, not an agent, not an attorney, not me. The decision belongs to VA, it turns on evidence and on rules that get revised, and any guarantee is either a misunderstanding of the system or a sales pitch. Confidence about a strategy is fine. Certainty about a result is not.

Anyone who asks for money up front to "file" a claim. The law restricts when a fee can be charged in VA cases at all, and that restriction exists precisely because a system built on earned benefits is not supposed to become a system where veterans pay for the privilege of entering it. Filing an Intent to File on VA Form 21-0966 and submitting an initial claim are things that can be done at no cost through a VSO. Before you hand anyone money to file something, ask what exactly you are paying for, and confirm the person is accredited.

A word about VSOs

I want to be clear, since I am the paid option describing the free one.

VSO representatives file an enormous share of the claims in this country, much of that work is very good, and they are often the right choice, particularly for getting a claim started and getting it filed correctly. They are free, they are local, and sitting across a desk from somebody in your own county who does this every day is a real advantage.

Where a lawyer tends to earn a fee is on files where the problem is legal rather than clerical: a decision that misapplied a rule, an appeal headed for the Board or beyond, a complicated unemployability case, a reduction to fight. That is a difference in the job, not a ranking of the people.

Ask all five questions of whoever you talk to, including me. Then pick the one whose answers were straight.

The Jacks Law Group represents veterans nationwide and worldwide from offices in Henderson and Las Vegas, Nevada. David R. Jacks, Jr. is a VA-accredited attorney and a 100% permanently and totally disabled U.S. Army veteran. If you want help with a claim or an appeal, call to schedule a consultation.

Disclaimer: This blog is for general information only. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Every VA claim turns on its own facts, and rates, rating criteria and program rules change over time. For advice about your own situation, speak with a VA-accredited attorney.