VA claim answers · Claim help basics

Free vs. Paid Help for VA Disability Claims in Texas

Updated October 17, 2026 · 6 min read · US Vet Help

In Texas, accredited Veterans Service Organizations — the Texas Veterans Commission, your county Veterans Service Officer, DAV, VFW — represent you for free, always, and are the right first call. Attorneys and accredited claims agents may charge only after an initial decision, out of past-due benefits. Percentage-of-increase consultants sit outside VA's fee rules.

The three kinds of help — and one kind of tool

Almost every offer a Texas veteran will see falls into one of four buckets. The differences are legal, not marketing.

What "VA-accredited" actually means

Accreditation is VA's permission slip. Under 38 CFR §14.629, VA's Office of General Counsel accredits three categories of people to assist with claims: representatives of recognized veterans service organizations, attorneys, and claims agents. Accreditation requires character and fitness review, continuing education, and — for agents — a written examination. Only accredited people may represent you before VA, receive your claim correspondence, and lawfully charge a fee when fees are allowed at all.

Being "veteran-owned," "former VA raters," or "endorsed" by anyone is not accreditation. The only authoritative answer is VA's own database.

Verify anyone in 60 seconds

• Open VA's OGC accreditation search.
• Search by the individual's last name — not the company's brand name. Accreditation attaches to people and to recognized organizations, not to marketing entities.
• Confirm the record shows a current accreditation type (attorney, agent, or representative of a named organization) and a state that matches where they practice.
• If they are not in the database, they cannot charge you for claim work and cannot be your representative. Stop before signing anything.

The fee rules, in plain English

38 CFR §14.636 governs who may charge what. Three provisions matter most:

• No fee for the initial claim. Accredited attorneys and agents may not charge for services rendered before VA issues notice of an initial decision on the claim. §14.636(c) ties the right to charge to the issuance of that decision and the filing of a supplemental claim, higher-level review, or notice of disagreement within the prescribed period.
• Recognized organizations may not charge at all. §14.636(b) bars fees for representation by a recognized VSO. That is why a county Veterans Service Officer never sends a bill.
• Reasonableness is capped by presumption. §14.636(f) treats 20% of past-due benefits as presumptively reasonable; fees above one-third are presumptively unreasonable. Fee agreements must be filed with VA.

Note what the regulation measures: past-due benefits — the retroactive lump sum from the effective date to the award. It does not authorize a fee calculated on your future monthly check or on "five times your first increase." A contract priced that way is not a VA fee agreement.

The Texas path

Texas has one of the more developed free-representation networks in the country. The Texas Veterans Commission runs Claims Representation and Counseling, with accredited claims counselors stationed at VA regional offices, VA medical centers, and field locations statewide. TVC also handles appeals work, including representation before the Board of Veterans' Appeals, at no charge.

Running parallel to TVC is the county Veterans Service Officer network. Most Texas counties employ at least one accredited CVSO, often the most accessible option in rural counties. CVSOs file the same forms, hold the same accreditation, and cost the same: nothing.

You may hold only one power of attorney at a time. Choosing TVC does not prevent you from switching to a county officer, DAV, or an attorney later — see the FAQ on switching.

Can you file it yourself without a lawyer?

Yes. VA's claims process is non-adversarial by design, and VA publishes the full self-service path at va.gov/disability/get-help-filing-claim. Self-filing is reasonable when the condition is clearly documented in your service treatment records, the nexus is obvious or presumptive, and you simply need to submit a complete package. It gets risky when the evidence is thin, the claim was previously denied, or an effective date is in play. For denials, VA's decision review options page explains the supplemental claim, higher-level review, and Board appeal lanes and their deadlines.

What free help does not do well

This is the honest part no one in the paid lane says out loud, and no VSO page says either. Accredited VSOs are excellent at the legal mechanics — correct forms, correct lanes, correct deadlines, representation at the Board. They are frequently stretched thin on the labor-intensive work:

• Reading a 1,200-page C-file and indexing which pages actually support which contention
• Sitting with you long enough to draft a usable personal statement in your own words
• Chasing down buddy statements from people you served with and getting them into VA-usable form
• Mapping a denial letter's reasons-and-bases language to the specific evidence gap

That is the gap software fills. Our Record Analyzer helps you index your own records, the Personal Statement and Buddy Letter tools help you and your witnesses write clearly, and the Denial Decoder helps you read what a decision letter is actually saying. You walk into your VSO appointment with an organized package; the VSO stays your accredited representative and files it.

Red flags before you sign

• Pressure to sign a power of attorney or contract on the first call or at a hotel "seminar"
• A fee expressed as a percentage or multiple of your monthly increase rather than past-due benefits
• "Guaranteed rating" or "we'll get you to 100%" language — no one can promise a rating decision
• Fees tied to arranging or paying for a private medical opinion, especially from a captive provider
• Being told not to contact a VSO, or that VSOs are "too slow to bother with"
• The individual's name does not appear in the OGC accreditation search
• No written fee agreement, or one that is not filed with VA

If a contract has already cost you money and you believe it was misrepresented, the FTC's consumer site accepts complaints, and the Texas Attorney General's consumer protection division handles state claims. You can also report accreditation concerns to VA OGC.

Our methodology page explains how we build and source our tools, and resources collects the government forms and links referenced here.