Notable Successes

Desmarais LLP earned a pro bono victory for a veteran’s widow before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Clams that awarded her VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) benefits following her husband’s death.
 
The Board of Veterans' Appeals had initially denied the widow’s claim for DIC benefits in 2020. The veteran had died in a motor vehicle accident while returning home from treatment for his service-related prostate cancer. Surviving spouses, children, and parents of veterans who die while serving or from service-connected injuries may receive tax-free DIC monetary benefits from the VA.
 
Desmarais LLP represented the client in her first appeal, persuading the VA to voluntarily remand the claim based on the Board’s errors in its decision. On remand, Desmarais LLP helped prepare a new claims package for the Board that included a letter from the veteran’s radiation oncologist. The Board, however, denied the claim again in 2022 finding the oncologist’s opinion was “speculative” because he used the word “could” in his rationale supporting his opinion that there was a link between the veteran’s service-connected condition and his untimely death. Desmarais LLP then filed a new appeal, and the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims reversed the Board’s decision based on the oncologist’s letter and awarded the DIC benefits to the veteran’s widow.
 
The Desmarais LLP team representing the pro bono client included Justin Wilcox, Adam Steinmetz, Deborah Mariottini, Molly Brown, and Mekbib Solomon.
 

Molly Brown

Deborah J. Mariottini

Adam Steinmetz

Justin P.D. Wilcox