VetRights
Sign the Petition
A Petition to the U.S. Congress

My wounds.
My choice.

They served their country. They should not have to fight for support from the V.A.

Too many veterans spend years fighting for benefits they already earned.

Federal rules prevent veterans from paying accredited professionals to help prepare an initial disability claim. Many file alone, get denied, and spend years trying to recover what should never have been delayed.

What is “fail first”?

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Why claims fail

First they serve.
Then they fight the paperwork.

Most Americans can hire professional help before they file an important claim. Veterans often can't. Federal rules prevent accredited professionals from charging a fee to help prepare an initial disability claim — so many navigate it alone, only to discover months or years later that critical evidence was missed, records weren't obtained, or mistakes delayed benefits they had already earned. For many, help comes only after a denial.

That's why veterans call it “Fail First.”

File alone: Veterans are often left to navigate a complex claims process without paid professional help.1FileAloneEvidence missed: Critical records, medical literature, service documents, or supporting evidence may never make it into the claim.2EvidenceMissedClaim Denied: The claim is denied or rated lower than the veteran believes is warranted.3ClaimDeniedYears lost: Appeals, supplemental claims, and reviews can take months or years.4YearsLostFind help: Only after receiving a decision do many veterans seek professional assistance.5FindHelpPay the price: Veterans may spend money, time, and emotional energy fixing a claim that could have been stronger from the start. Legal professionals can take 20–30% of the claim amount.6Pay thePriceFAIL FIRSTThe longer veterans are stuckin the cycle, the higher the cost.↻ then the next veteran

Hover or tap any stage — on the dial or in the list — for details.

The cost of waiting

The longer a veteran is stuck, the higher the price.

Years lost

Time spent waiting, appealing, and proving what should have been recognized from the start.

Benefits delayed

Compensation earned through service, held up while veterans fight a process they often must navigate alone.

Treatment delayed

Care postponed while records are gathered, evidence is found, and claims move through years of review.

Every delay happens after service.

Every delay affects someone who already fulfilled their obligation to the country.

Real veteran stories

When veterans can't choose their help

These veterans eventually received the benefits they had earned. The tragedy isn't that they were approved. It's that they had to wait years before anyone found the evidence that should have been there from the beginning. Many aren't as lucky.

Combat gear, ammunition, and tools laid out in front of an M1A1 Abrams tank
Army · Tanker

Denied for 10 years

For ten years, the VA denied his knee claim because there were no sick-call records.

So we asked a different question. What was your job?

He was a tanker. Every day for a decade he climbed on and off a seven-foot M1A1 Abrams carrying ammunition, equipment, and full combat gear. Medical research shows that repetitive impact of that magnitude can produce significant cumulative trauma.

The missing evidence wasn’t another doctor’s visit.

It was understanding what his service actually required.

Ten years of waiting came down to asking the right questions.

A smoldering military burn pit releasing smoke near a base, with mountains in the distance
Army · South Korea

Denied for 7 years

After serving in South Korea, he developed serious short-term memory problems.

For seven years, the VA couldn’t connect his condition to his military service.

The missing piece wasn’t another doctor’s visit.

It was evidence that already existed.

A documented environmental disaster at the very base where he served.

Seven years of waiting came down to information that should have been found the first time.

Veterans shouldn’t have to lose years of their lives because critical evidence isn’t gathered before a claim is filed.

Orange chemical residue pooling on the ground beneath an aircraft landing gear and tire
Vietnam Era

Denied for 30 years

He was told he hadn’t been exposed to Agent Orange.

For thirty years, that answer stood.

The evidence eventually showed something different.

Aircraft returning from Vietnam had been washed down at the very location where he worked, contaminating the surrounding environment with hazardous chemicals.

Thirty years later, his claim was finally approved.

Justice delayed for three decades isn’t justice.

Veterans deserve the opportunity to get it right the first time.

Military sexual trauma

And the wounds you can't file in a crowded room

A survivor of military sexual trauma is told to walk into a courthouse or a government office and tell the whole story to a stranger to start their claim. Most never do. So they never file, never get help, and never get the care they deserve. “Fail first” hits them hardest of all.

Choice changes that. When a veteran can decide who they talk to a man or a woman, and how, a phone call instead of a camera, survivors actually come forward. This is what the right to choose protects. It's not partisan. It's human.

A veteran sits alone in a dim room, turned toward a window, a faded U.S. seal on the wall behind her
The injustice

The “fail first” rule

Every other American who files a federal claim can hire professional help on day one. Veterans can't. By law, a veteran has to file their disability claim alone and get denied or underrated, before they're allowed to pay a professional to do it right.

It's the only system in the country that says: lose first, then we'll let you get help.

More than 70% of initial VA disability claims are denied or underrated on the first try. So most veterans lose, exactly as the system is built to make them. Only after that denial can they bring in real help. That's months, often years, of benefits a veteran already earned, gone.

The rule, in plain English: 38 CFR § 14.636(c)

Federal regulation bars accredited agents and attorneys from charging a fee to prepare or file a veteran's initial disability claim. They can only be paid after the VA issues its first decision. It was written generations ago as consumer protection, to stop lawyers from preying on troops. Today the outcome is the opposite: it strands veterans in a denial-first system and shuts the door on getting it done right the first time.

Here's what nobody connects: the “claim sharks” taking 20% or more of a veteran's backpay exist because of this rule. When the only options allowed are free help that's overwhelmed and paid help you can't touch until after you've lost, you manufacture desperation, and desperation is exactly what predators feed on. Open the market to honest, transparent help, and you don't just give veterans a choice. You starve the sharks.

What we're asking

Open the market. Trust the veteran.

This isn't about any one company. It's about ending a rule that treats veterans like they're too foolish to choose who helps them.

The petition's ask of Congress

Amend or remove 38 CFR § 14.636(c) so that veterans may seek professional help on their initial claim.Point blank, simple: Open the market so veterans get the best options available, not the only ones the system allows.

THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE

Let veterans decide who helps with their claim: a VSO, an attorney, or a professional service. Their call, not the government’s.

END FAIL FIRST

Let veterans get professional help on the initial claim, so it’s done right the first time instead of denied by design.

PROTECT THE BACKPAY

Reward transparent, flat-fee help. No model should survive only by taking a cut of the benefits a veteran already earned.

Why advocacy matters

Most veterans don't need a miracle

They need someone to do the work.

Many denials happen because evidence is incomplete, records are missing, or critical details never make it into the claim.

Advocates help veterans gather evidence, connect records, and present claims correctly.

For many veterans, that difference determines whether benefits arrive in months or years.

  1. What the Process Looks Like with Good Advocacy
  2. Medical Records
  3. Service Records
  4. Research
  5. Supporting Evidence
  6. Proper Filing
The real question

Who should decide?

Today’s system

The government decides who veterans are allowed to hire when preparing an initial disability claim.

  • Hire a paid attorney
  • Hire an accredited agent
  • Hire a professional advocate
  • Choose the help that’s right for you

The choice is restricted.

How it should be

Veterans decide who helps them prepare their claim, just like every other American making an important decision.

  • Choose a VSO
  • Choose an attorney
  • Choose an accredited agent
  • Choose a professional advocate
  • Choose nobody at all

The choice belongs to the veteran.

The Declaration

Veterans deserve a choice

We, the undersigned, call on the United States Congress to end the “fail first” rule that forces veterans to be denied before they can get professional help with their disability claims.

We trusted these men and women with rifles, tanks, and the defense of the nation. They can be trusted to choose who helps them claim the benefits they earned. We ask Congress to amend or remove 38 CFR § 14.636(c) and open the market so every veteran has a real, professional option from day one.

Signed by veterans, families, and citizens who believe those who served deserve a choice.

Add my name
The petition ask

Congress should

Amend or remove 38 CFR § 14.636(c) so that veterans may seek professional help on their initial claim.

  • Let veterans get help before they're denied.

    Veterans should be able to hire qualified professional assistance when preparing an initial disability claim, not only after they've already lost months or years fighting the system.

  • Preserve transparency and consumer protections.

    Veterans deserve clear pricing, informed consent, and strong safeguards against predatory practices, without being denied the freedom to choose who helps them.

  • Expand options, not restrict them.

    A veteran should be free to choose a VSO, attorney, accredited agent, professional advocate, or no assistance at all. The government should not decide that choice for them.

  • Trust veterans to make their own decisions.

    We trusted these men and women with the defense of our nation. They can be trusted to decide who helps them pursue the benefits they earned through service.

Add your name

Sign the petition

Anyone can sign: veterans, families, and supporters. It takes 30 seconds and costs nothing.

Sign the Petition

We trusted veterans to defend the country. Trust them to choose their own help.

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Questions

Before you sign

Portrait of Lukas Simianer, founder of VetClaims.ai
Why I'm in this fight

I enlisted in the Army at 17 and served with the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan, where I was wounded at 19.

Years later, while helping veterans navigate the VA disability system, I kept seeing the same thing: veterans being denied, delayed, and forced to fight for benefits they had already earned.

The deeper I looked, the clearer it became that the problem wasn't the veterans.

It was the system.

This petition isn't about politics or any one company.

It's about giving veterans the right to choose who helps them.

That's a choice they should have had all along.

Lukas Simianer

U.S. Army Veteran · 82nd Airborne Division