Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program

Recruits and trains lawyers to provide free representation to America's veterans and family members with valid appeals at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

Why do we exist?

Many veterans and their survivors - from World WAR II to Iraq & Afghanistan - seek benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA),  If they are turned down by VA, they can now appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (the Veterans Court) - a specialized federal court, only for veterans, and one which reviews those adverse VA decisions.  Historically, more than 60% of those veterans do not have a lawyer when their file their appeal.  However, VA has many lawyers representing the agency.  Our goal is to level the playing field and to offer assistance to unrepresented veterans. 

Our approach is quite comprehensive.  We evaluate each veteran’s case, and those with at least one meritorious issue are referred to a lawyer who will represent that veteran at absolutely no cost.  To help those pro bono lawyers provide meaningful representation, we offer them a day-long training class, educational resources, and even a mentor for help and guidance.  We want our lawyers to succeed, and our veterans to prevail.

We continue to receive a steadily increasing stream of inquiries from attorneys around the nation looking to give their time and effort to assisting this country’s veterans.  We look to the future with enthusiasm and energy as we continue to expand our services to America’s veterans and their families with the assistance of the best legal minds the American system of jurisprudence has to offer. 

The Pro Bono Program is a unique, one-of-a-kind, effort with a single mission - to help veterans with their appeal at the Veterans Court.  There is no similar program in any other federal court in the country.  This reflects the country’s commitment to its veterans.

Throughout the Program’s nineteen-year history we have met the challenges involved in providing effective representation for our Nation’s veterans and we continue to meet that challenge every day.

What have you accomplished?

While our accomplishments can be measured by numbers like those below, far more important are our success stories where the dedicated efforts of the Program’s volunteer attorneys made a difference in the lives of  individual veterans or the lives of all those who have served.

From the Board of Veterans’ Appeals to the Supreme Court, America’s lawyers, through the Program, have contributed their time and energy in seeing that justice was done for those who defended our nation in times of war and peace.  One firm donated over 1.5 million dollars in legal services over the past two years. The attorneys’ goal was to protect the rights of a veteran who, because of a disability, had filed his appeal after the Court’s deadline had passed.  Taking the appeal though the Federal Circuit to the Supreme Court, counsel convinced the High Court that a review of the circumstances for any late filing should be required prior to dismissal of a case. This decision allows nearly 200 veterans with cases pending at the Veterans Court to have their appeals heard and protects future cases with veterans in similar circumstances.

Although the Supreme Court decision was a high visibility appeal, so many other cases have great impact on veterans’ lives. Examples include a successful battle for benefits for a Vietnam veteran’s daughter who was born with Agent Orange related spina bifida, a legal struggle that lasted for eleven years; another ended with a veteran and father of six receiving long over-due benefits for a back problem arising from handling artillery shells, lifting his family out of poverty.  Over and over again, Program attorneys obtain the denied benefits for a veteran’s service connected disabilities. 

And the numbers?  In our 18 years we have contacted over 26,000 veterans, including more than 2,300 in 2010; we have assigned volunteer attorneys to over 3,600 appeals, including 205 last year.  As to our volunteers, we trained 183 lawyers last year, bringing our total to over 2,800.  The efforts of these volunteer attorneys generated over five million dollars in pro bono services in 2010 alone, bringing the 18 year total to more than $55,000,000 in donated services. But beyond these numbers, our goal remains the same – to make a difference in veterans’ lives. 

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