The VA PTSD Claims Playbook

Filing a PTSD Claim walks you through a VA PTSD claim in ten steps: the Intent to File, the stressor rule that fits, your diagnosis and medical opinion, buddy statements, the stressor statement, and the 21-526EZ. Fillable checklists. Education only.

Three versions of the same buddy statement: weak, strong and harmful. Includes a two-page fillable handout your witness can complete, sign and hand back, plus a checklist to run before you submit.

Five, ten and twenty years each protect something different. Explains rating reduction protections, the 30-day hearing and 60-day evidence windows, with a fillable rating inventory.

Five review lanes, and two of them cannot see new evidence. Sorts supplemental claim, Higher-Level Review and the three Board dockets, with a fillable sorting worksheet and one-year deadline check.

A tie goes to the veteran, and an opinion with no reasoning weighs nothing. Explains benefit of the doubt and includes a page to hand your doctor about nexus opinions.

For a mental health C&P exam. Shows how a good morning can hide a hard year, and gives a two-week symptom log to fill in before the exam.

Why 50, 30 and 20 make 70, not 100. Walks through VA's combined ratings math, the bilateral factor and rounding mistakes, then gives a fillable worksheet to check your own decision letter.

PTSD stressor proof has five routes, and four of them let your own account count. Sorts which route fits you and gives a fillable statement worksheet with crisis support built in.

TDIU is a different door, not a rating you climb to. Explains the percentage rules, marginal employment and the Census threshold, then gives a fillable job-by-job work history record.