Disabled Veterans Charged Up to $20K to File VA Benefits Claims: Lawsuit

A new federal class-action lawsuit accuses a company of taking advantage of disabled veterans and their spouses, charging upwards of $20,000 for Veterans Affairs (VA) claims as part of alleged deceptive practices.

The Pensacola, Fla.-headquartered law firm Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz (AWKO) filed the case on April 10 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alongside co-counsel Bradley/Grombacher and Pittman, Dutton, Hellums, Bradley & Mann, P.C. They allege that Florida-based companies Trajector, Inc. and Trajector Medical, LLC, performed services on veterans’ behalf, such as assistance with the preparation of VA disability claims, without proper VA accreditation and in violation of federal law. 

The 58-page complaint also accuses Trajector of charging exorbitant fees that go beyond what can be charged by VA accredited representatives who assist with claim preparation, ranging between $4,500 to more than $20,000.

“Something had to be done to stop these people from taking unfair advantage of these veterans,” Jennifer Byrd, head of AWKO’s VA disability practice, told Military.com. “At the end of the day, this lawsuit exposes this business model that unlawfully charges veterans thousands of dollars for help with VA disability claims that federal law already requires to be provided free of charge.

“Anyone that's an accredited agent cannot charge for an initial claim. The whole reason that VA disability benefits exist is because these veterans were either injured or disabled while they're serving our country. They deserve our respect.”

Byrd admitted that the number of veterans represented in the suit is unknown, though estimated that the true number may be “in the hundreds, into the thousands, to hundreds of thousands.”

Steve Zenofsky, a company spokesperson, rejected the accusations made in the suit.

“The complaint is without merit, and the company intends to defend itself vigorously,” Zenofsky told Military.com.

Details of Lawsuit

The litigation alleges that the defendants “engage in unfair and deceptive trade practices and predatory collection practices in their unlawful scheme,” adding that Trajectory allegedly “systematically took advantage of them throughout the VA disability claims process by intentionally ignoring federal regulations and laws which are designed to protect Veterans from overcharging ‘claim sharks.’”

Trajector Medical’s website describes its personnel as “medical evidence experts” who identify current medical conditions and key linking disabilities that may have been previously overlooked or underdiagnosed. They provide support packets, to a veteran or their attorney or representative, tailored to the associated medical conditions.

The process, according to Trajector, involves collecting medical symptoms from records and consultations; mapping symptoms to potential overlooked or underdiagnosed conditions; assessing severity or variable impairment level of potential disabilities as well as disability onset dates; and discovering causal factors of disabilities using published medical research.

But according to the plaintiffs, Trajector failed to inform veterans that comparable assistance is available at no cost through VA-accredited organizations including the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) or Disabled American Veterans (DAV).

Past Warnings for Claims Processes

The issue goes back years, Byrd said, alluding to a warning from the VA's Office of General Counsel (VA OGA).

According to the suit, on June 29, 2017, the VA OGC sent a cease-and-desist letter to Trajector stating that it “may be engaged in illegal activities, which include the unauthorized preparation, presentation and prosecution of claims for VA benefits, as well as charging claimants for your services.”

That letter purportedly detailed Trajector Medical’s lack of accreditation and lack of any lawful basis to charge veterans fees for assisting them in the preparation, presentation and prosecution of their VA claims.

Trajector’s conduct violated VA standards of conduct prohibiting accredited individuals from engaging in conduct involving fraud, deceit, misrepresentation or dishonesty, per the letter—which ended with “[t]herefore, you and your organization are prohibited by law from representing veterans before VA.”

That was followed by another 12-page cease-and-desist letter in January 2022 that explicitly warned that Trajector’s practices violated federal law and threatened referral to law enforcement.

“It really got bad in 2022 after the PACT Act was passed that included so many presumptive conditions that really made this business model that they have even more egregious because all these veterans had to do were file these claims and the VA would have presumptively granted them without them having to pay a fee to anybody,” Byrd said.

She said she filed many of those claims herself, “knowing that I wasn't going to get paid because it's what you should do when you represent veterans like this.”

At its core, this is about holding predatory companies accountable and stopping this exploitation of our veterans. I mean, we can't get it done legislatively. Hopefully one day they'll get around to it. But until then, this has to happen. It’s got to stop.

Personal Information Collected on Veterans

The lawsuit also accuses Trajectory, as part of their “unlawful enterprise,” of employing an automated calling system known as “CallBot” that repeatedly calls VA hotlines using veterans’ personal information including names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth to access and monitor veterans’ private, confidential disability benefits compensation information without adequate consent or disclosure.

Byrd said that when a benefit is increased, Trajector "immediately triggers billing and aggressive and severely predatory collection efforts.

“So, when you have veterans that are already struggling with PTSD, TBIs, severe musculoskeletal issues, and then they have to have this constant monitoring, contacting and financial pressure, it makes their problems even worse," she said. 

“The main gist of this is that Trajector used unfair practices, they didn't disclose these people could get these things for free, and then they turned around and aggressively went after them and threatened legal action and credit problems that they never actually were going to go through with. It was truly just a threat," Byrd added.

Zenofsky defended the company, telling Military.com that Trajector Medical is a private medical‑evidence company that doesn’t file VA claims.

Our fees are only for independent medical evidence that veterans ask us to prepare. Federal law allows veterans to use private medical evidence and requires the VA to consider competent reports from qualified, non‑VA providers.

He said those aforementioned Trajector licensed medical professionals help veterans document diagnoses, service connection, and symptom severity for their VA disability claims.

“Our fees are for that medical‑evidence work—never for filing a claim,” he added. “Veterans decide which claims to file with the VA, and they pay us only if their VA disability benefits increase based on the evidence we helped them develop.”

He also touted the company’s online reviews as proof of happy customers.

“Today, we have a 4.6‑star Google rating based on nearly 14,000 reviews, and an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau—which reflects the experiences of many of the veterans we serve,” he said.

Byrd retorted that online reviews are not gospel and can be manipulated, saying that Trajector goes beyond offering independent medical opinions and prepares, presents forms and validates them—which is unorthodox.

“I think all of that will easily come out in the discovery process,” she said.