I filed two appeals in the last 12 months. The first was a Board of Veterans Appeals through a law firm, and the second was a supplemental claim I did 10 months later entirely on my own.
Unfortunately, when I signed the representation agreement with the law firm, I didn’t fully wrap my head around an item that came back to bite me in the backside.
Both claim appeals were approved by the VA and ironically the decisions were awarded within a few days of each other.
When I signed the law firm’s contract, I granted them a fee for 20% of ALL backpay I receive.
So the VA is withholding thousands of dollars from the supplemental claim *I filed independently* for this firm that never did a single microsecond of work on it.
They hold it for 60 days in case there’s a dispute so yes…
I am now having to submit a dispute through the VA OGC because I foolishly allowed this firm the equivalent of a general power of attorney when it comes to backpay.
Don’t be like me. If you sign a legal agreement for appeals representation, make sure it specifies they may only receive backpay for actual services rendered and not for future work done solely by the veteran.