i recently got my ratings from my dislocated knee surgery repair and received 10%. however, due to this being a lifelong issue, additional problems in my knees, not being able to claim both knees (same incident just a difference in severity however there's still damage) and more serious than it appears on paper, I believe I deserve medical retirement. I've heard it's difficult to argue and even impossible to change the rating but i was wondering if there was anyone I should contact. during my physicals the only thing they checked was range of motion, my interview was done over the phone, and I didn't get a lawyer because I just wanted the process to be done with. i know i made a mistake with not negotiating first but now I'm not sure what to do or who to contact. I'm still in the army and I've heard it's better to argue once discharged but i just wanted to know if there's anything i should do before I'm officially a civilian again. thank you.
10% Army/100% VA, i think i should receive more from army, how do i? help desperately needed!
- Thread starter dexanad
- Start date
Better to fight now than later. The chances of getting a ABCMR to overturn results and award medical retirement are next to none in your situation. Consider hiring a dedicated private attorney though it will be harder now than if you had earlier in the process. The VA does the rating. Not the Army. The Army states what is unfitting and those conditions pull the VA's rating and totals it up for your DOD%. Knees are very hard to get a high rating on. 10% may be appropriate for your knee. If it should be 20% or higher you can request a VARR. Also, if you are trying to medically retire you want to argue that you have other conditions that should have been found unfitting. This is where a skilled attorney at the beginning could have had more impact. For example, if you had done IMR's, Rebuttals etc at NARSUM stage that your mental health and other knee should have been unfitting then it shows that you were wanting that from the start. You could have gotten out to 3rd party docs to get them to create letters to support your case so that when you got to the end you don't just have a VARR to increase your only 1 unfitting condition but at the same time you can request a FPEB to add other unfitting conditions.
If you don't contest and appeal to the very end and accept your DA199 finding there is no way a ABCMR will find in your favor because you didn't even bother to fight it at the time. Even if you do those things you are have a slim chance of it getting changed because there has to be an injustice and you not agreeing isn't an injustice.
Good Luck!
Provis
i appreciate you, this answer helps a lot! i hope it's not too late for me to try to say anything but i will try. it felt like they overlooked a lot of things during my process! I'll see what I can do, thank you!