Colorado VA Disability Lawyers
We're Denver Veterans Representing Denver Veterans
Denied by the VA? A decision letter isn't the last word.
Our office is in Littleton, about twenty minutes south of downtown, and all three partners served before any of us practiced law. That shows up in ways that are hard to fake. We can read a personnel file without needing anything translated, and we know the difference between an entry written by someone who was there and one written by someone filling out a form six weeks later. When your treatment records go quiet for most of a year, we don't assume you got better. We assume you were deployed, and then we go find the proof.
Denver is a big market for VA law, and a lot of the firms that come up when you search for a Denver VA lawyer aren't in Denver. They're in Houston, or Phoenix, or Indiana, running a page with the city's name on it and a call center behind it. We're the ones you can actually drive to. If you'd rather sit across a desk from the attorney handling your case, we're twenty minutes from Union Station and there's a parking lot.
How Denver VA Claims Actually Get Decided
The Denver VA Regional Office sits in Lakewood, fifteen minutes from our office, and it's the office of jurisdiction for every Colorado claim. But that doesn't mean a rater in Lakewood decides your case. The VA runs claims through the National Work Queue, so your file can land with someone in Winston-Salem or St. Petersburg who has never set foot on Buckley and has no idea what an Aurora address tells you about where a veteran got care.
When the rating comes back wrong there are three ways forward under the Appeals Modernization Act. A Higher-Level Review puts the same evidence in front of a senior reviewer. A Supplemental Claim lets you add new evidence, which is the right lane more often than veterans think. A Board Appeal sends the case to the Board of Veterans' Appeals, where you can ask for a hearing.
Pick the wrong one and you can lose a year to it. If the Board denies you, the case can go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, which has the power to reverse the Board or send the case back with instructions. We handle all of it, so nobody has to hand your file to a different lawyer partway through.
Denver Service, Denver Exposure
The Denver metro has been military ground for a long time, and a lot of what happened here surfaces in claims decades later.
Buckley in Aurora is the active installation, and PFAS contamination from firefighting foam there is documented. But the closed bases are where a lot of Denver veterans actually served. Lowry trained technical specialists for the Air Force for decades before it shut in 1994, and thousands of Denver veterans passed through it. Fitzsimons was the Army's major medical center in the region until it closed in 1999, and the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center now sits on that same ground. The Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Commerce City manufactured chemical weapons and pesticides for fifty years, and the Army personnel assigned there worked around nerve agents, mustard agent, and the contamination that made it one of the most polluted sites in the country.
Exposure claims tied to Denver service are a real category, and they get denied the first time through more often than not, usually because nobody documented where the veteran actually was and what was in the ground and water there.
What We Handle
VA Disability Appeals
Denials, ratings that came back too low, effective dates the VA set later than it should have, and proposed reductions to ratings you already have. We work regularly on PTSD and other mental health conditions, TDIU, TBI, sleep apnea, migraines, PACT Act and Agent Orange exposure, Gulf War illness, and military sexual trauma.
Learn moreInitial VA Claims, Free
Federal law doesn't let an attorney charge for work on a first claim before the VA decides it, so we don't. We take a limited number of initial claims each month through the Valor First Claim program, and we build them right the first time rather than fixing them on appeal.
Learn moreCAVC Appeals
When the Board denies your claim the next stop is the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and we're admitted there. In successful CAVC appeals attorney fees are generally paid by the government under the Equal Access to Justice Act, which means the money doesn't come out of your benefits.
Learn moreDischarge Upgrades and Records Corrections
Bad paper closes doors to VA healthcare, education benefits, and jobs, and it follows people for decades. The discharge review boards and the correction boards can change a characterization, a narrative reason, or an RE code, and they're required to apply liberal consideration when the underlying conduct traces back to PTSD, TBI, or military sexual trauma.
Learn moreEstate Planning for Veterans
Wills, trusts, powers of attorney, and directives, built by people who understand how VA benefits and military retirement actually pass and where a standard estate plan can cost a surviving spouse a pension.
Learn moreWhat It Costs
Initial claims are free. Appeals run on contingency, which means no attorney fee unless we win and recover past-due benefits, at a percentage capped by federal law. Discharge upgrades and estate planning are flat fee and quoted before we start, so you're never guessing. If a case has costs attached, like an independent medical opinion, we tell you in writing before you owe anything.
*Attorney fees in VA matters are regulated by federal law.
Where We Work
The office is in Littleton, and we represent veterans across the Denver metro, including Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, Englewood, Centennial, Arvada, Westminster, Thornton, Commerce City, Golden, Parker, Highlands Ranch, and Castle Rock. We also represent veterans across Colorado and nationwide in VA matters.
Talk to a Veteran Attorney
Not every case can be won, and we'll tell you that early rather than after you've spent a year on it. But a denial is not a finding of fact about your service, and it's worth having someone look at why the VA said no before you accept it.
Common Questions from Denver Veterans
Where is your office, and can I meet in person?
We're at 7950 S. Lincoln Street in Littleton, about twenty minutes south of downtown Denver off Broadway. Yes, you can meet in person. Most of our clients do at some point, even when the rest of the case runs by phone and email.
I get my care at the Aurora VA. Does that affect my claim?
Your treatment records from the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center are the medical evidence in your file, and they help. The C&P exam is a different story. The VA almost never does those in-house anymore. They're contracted out to private companies, and the examiner is usually someone you've never met, working from a checklist, who may not have read your records before you walked in. That exam is often the single most important document in the claim, and a bad one can sink a good case. If yours was rushed, or the examiner didn't have your history, or the report doesn't describe what you actually told them, that's fixable. But it has to be addressed on purpose, and we know what a bad contractor exam looks like on paper.
Can I still appeal if my denial is years old?
Often, yes. Deadlines are real, but there are routes that reopen old decisions, including supplemental claims with new evidence and clear and unmistakable error claims that can reach back to decisions that became final long ago. It's worth having someone look before you assume the door is closed.
What does it cost to have you look at my denial?
Nothing. Send us the decision letter and an attorney reads it and tells you what we see.
Denver VA Offices and Veteran Resources
Where Denver-area claims, care, and community support actually run through.
Benefits
Denver VA Regional Benefit Office
155 Van Gordon Street
Lakewood, CO 80228
800-827-1000
The office of jurisdiction for Colorado claims, fifteen minutes from our office. Your file is assigned here even when the rating work happens somewhere else.
Medical
Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center
1700 North Wheeling Street
Aurora, CO 80045
The main VA hospital for the Front Range, on the old Fitzsimons grounds. Your treatment records from here are the medical evidence in your claim. C&P exams are generally contracted out rather than done on site.
Community Resource
Denver VA Community Resource and Referral Center
3836 York Street
Denver, CO 80205
303-294-5600
One-stop VA access for veterans who are homeless or at risk. Walk-in clinic, showers, housing and job referrals, and help starting a claim or pension.
Community Resource
Bill Daniels Veteran Service Center
1247 Santa Fe Drive
Denver, CO 80204
720-501-3367
Run by Volunteers of America Colorado. Housing, employment, SSVF, and a building full of partner agencies under one roof.
Mental Health
The Sturm Center
2450 S. Vine Street
Denver, CO 80210
303-871-7942
University of Denver's behavioral health clinic for veterans, service members, and their families, including Guard and Reserve. Open to any discharge status. Doctoral-level clinicians under licensed supervision, at low or no cost.
Mental Health
Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic
7800 E. Orchard Road, Suite 150
Greenwood Village, CO 80111
303-724-4255
Free, confidential mental health care for post-9/11 veterans and their families through CU Anschutz, regardless of discharge status. Telehealth available. Intake usually scheduled within a week of the first call.
Addresses, phone numbers, and hours change. Confirm with the facility before you travel. This block is informational and is not a referral to any facility or organization.