THE BATTLE OF THE MEDICAL EXPERTS 

What happens when a veteran submits a medical opinion supporting a claim for disability benefits, and then the VA obtains an unfavorable medical opinion? Under the VA’s pro-claimant benefit-of-the-doubt rule, the VA should grant the claim, right? Unfortunately, the answer is “not necessarily.” Time and again, the VA relies on its own negative medical opinion to deny the claim.  

In this webinar, we give advocates advice about how to handle this common scenario in the VA claim process. We explain reasons why a VA medical opinion might be inadequate or should be assigned less probative value than a favorable private medical opinion. We provide tips for obtaining a persuasive private medical opinion and legal arguments that will help the veteran win “the battle of the medical experts.” 

This webinar covers the following and more:  

• Methods for finding a medical expert who can provide an opinion in support of a claim for VA disability benefits  
• How to ensure that a private medical opinion is legally sufficient, highly probative, and persuasive 
• A discussion of the presumption of competency of VA examiners and when advocates should challenge that presumption 
• Case law advocates can cite to discredit unfavorable VA medical opinions 
• How to best argue that the VA should assign more probative value to a favorable medical opinion than an unfavorable medical opinion 
• Arguments to raise when submitting a favorable medical opinion that can dissuade the VA from obtaining its own, potentially negative, medical opinion

To access this webinar for 72 hours after placing an order, please use the link that will be in the email order receipt. If you have any questions, please email:  webinars@nvlsp.org