Disability after a military injury: securing the right cause and group

What is happening

The military medical board has found you unfit for service, yet the medical and social expert board either refused disability status or awarded a lower group than your condition warrants. Sometimes the cause is recorded as 'illness contracted during military service' instead of a military injury, and the scope of your rights changes at once.

Often the problem lies not in the board's decision but in the papers: the referral is carelessly drawn up, some examinations were never done, there is no certificate of the wound or no medical board finding on causation. The expert sees an incomplete picture and decides on it.

Re-examination is a separate story. The group is removed or reduced on the basis of improvement, although rehabilitation is unfinished and the lost functions have not returned. That can be challenged too.

What the law says

• Disability is established by the medical and social expert bodies; a military medical board decides something different — fitness for service and the causal link between the injury and service.
• The recorded cause of disability follows the medical board's finding on causation, so the dispute often begins with that finding rather than with the expert board.
• Article 3(13) of Federal Law No. 306-FZ of 7 November 2011 on Servicemen's Pay ties a monthly compensation and other payments to disability caused by a military injury, with amounts depending on the group.
• A local board's decision is challenged before the main board, then the Federal board, and also in court — the pre-court route does not remove the right to sue.
• In such a case the court may order a forensic medical examination, and its conclusions usually decide the outcome.
• Disability may be granted for a term or indefinitely; a decision reducing or withdrawing the group at re-examination can also be challenged.

What we do

• We check the medical board finding and the causation wording, and where necessary first press to have it changed to a military injury.
• We check that the referral to the expert board is complete and that the required examinations were carried out, and help request records from the hospital and clinic.
• We prepare and file the challenge to the main or Federal board with reasoned objections.
• We prepare the court claim, justify the need for a forensic examination and frame the questions for the experts.
• We run the case in court, attend the hearings, work with the expert report and appeal where needed.
• Once disability is established we help arrange the payments and benefits that follow from it.

What we need from you

• The military medical board finding and the certificate of the wound or illness.
• The referral to the medical and social expert board with the medical records attached to it.
• The board's decision, the disability certificate or written refusal, and the examination record and report.
• Hospital discharge summaries, examination results and details of the rehabilitation received.
• Service documents: the contract, extracts from orders, the service record certificate, proof of participation in combat.
• A power of attorney for the advocate and your own written account of how daily life has changed.