We wrote last month about a court judgment against the claims-coaching industry and the business model it punished. The sequel
arrived this morning in NPR's reporting, and it involves the biggest name in that business.

Trajector Medical, the Florida company that charges veterans as much as $20,000 for help with disability claims, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after class action lawsuits were filed against it. The filing came five days before the company was set to default on a loan balance of nearly $63 million. Bankruptcy automatically pauses civil litigation, which means the veterans suing Trajector are, for now, waiting.
What bankruptcy doesn't pause is law enforcement. In a September 8 letter to the bankruptcy court, the attorneys general of New York and Illinois disclosed ongoing investigations and said they intend to bring legal action against the company for fraudulent, illegal, and deceptive business practices. Their expectation, stated to the court, is that the money Trajector is holding in bankruptcy was collected through illegality and fraud. The company denies the allegations.
Why the bankruptcy move is the story
Chapter 11 lets a company keep operating while it reorganizes, and it stops creditors and plaintiffs from moving individually against its assets. For a business facing lawsuits it would rather not defend, that's a shield. Trajector's own filings attribute its cash problems to an increasingly adversarial regulatory environment and internal discord, which is a candid way of describing what happens when states, courts, and the VA all start looking at the same business at once.
For veterans who paid Trajector and want their money back, the picture is murky. Their lawsuits are frozen. Their claims against the company now sit inside a bankruptcy process alongside a bank owed $63 million. Whether the state investigations produce restitution is an open question that nobody, including the attorneys bringing the class actions, can answer yet.
The pattern, again
Every claims-coaching company runs the same playbook, and we laid it out in
the August post: unaccredited, so it can't file or represent you; charges a multiple of your monthly increase, which turns a rating bump into a five-figure bill; and answers to nobody when the claim goes wrong. Federal law requires that veterans be able to get help with initial claims free of charge. That's the law the VA warned Trajector its business may violate, and it's the law the state investigations now turn on.
What's changed since August is the enforcement posture. Texas got a judgment. New York and Illinois are moving. The class actions are filed. The companies are responding with bankruptcy filings rather than defenses. That trajectory tells you what the model was worth once anyone looked closely.
If you paid one of these companies
Three things:
Your claim is fine. Nothing about having used a coaching company damages the claim itself. Your file is yours, and accredited help can pick it up from wherever it stands.
Your money might not be gone, but it isn't coming easily. If you paid Trajector specifically, you're now a potential creditor in a bankruptcy case, and the attorneys bringing class actions are the ones tracking that. If you paid a different company, your state attorney general's consumer protection office is the place to ask about recourse.
Stop paying now, if you're still paying. Contracts with these companies often run as ongoing obligations tied to your benefits. Have someone accredited read yours before you send another payment.
The three questions that would have prevented all of it
We've said this before and it bears repeating because the companies keep finding new customers. Ask anyone offering claim help: Are you VA-accredited, and will you file the form appointing yourself as my representative? What do I owe you if my initial claim is granted, and what law allows you to charge it? What happens if I'm denied? Trajector, by its own filings, can't answer the first one yes.
Where we come in
We're a veteran-led firm, and through
Valor First Claim we represent veterans on initial claims at no charge, which is the thing the coaching industry charges $20,000 to imitate without the accreditation. If you paid one of these companies, or you're being pitched by one,
reach out and we'll give you the accredited version of the conversation.
