This program is eligible for 3 hours of CLE credit in 60-minute states. In 50-minute states, this program is eligible for 3.6 hours of CLE credit. Credit hours are estimated and are subject to each state’s approval and credit rounding rules.
Overview
Pennsylvania has nearly 700,000 veterans living within our communities; this is the fifth-largest veterans' population in the country. As an advocate for those who served our country, it’s important that you understand veterans law – from the basics and beyond, including recent changes and developments in the law. You play an essential role in removing barriers to the benefits to which your client is entitled.
This program walks you through the basics to help you most effectively help your clients and meet the requirements to become an accredited VA representative.
- VA Pension Benefits
- The VA Claim Process — An Overview
- Basic Principles of Veterans Benefits
- Survivors Benefits
- Appeals to the Board of Veterans Appeals & Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims
- Attorney's Fees
Become an Accredited VA Representative.
If you are interested in providing advice and/or representation to veterans in VA benefits matters, you MUST be accredited through the US Department of Veterans Affairs Office of General Counsel. In order to become accredited, you must fill out VA Form 21A (found here). Once you fill out the form and submit it to the Office of General Counsel (more information can be found here), you will receive notice of your accreditation. Within the first twelve months of your accreditation, you are required to take a three-hour CLE on veterans law. This program will count toward that CLE requirement. You must have already obtained your attorney ID number prior to taking the initial required CLE course. If you have any questions, please contact us.
Co-sponsored with the PBA Military & Veterans' Affairs Committee.
Agenda
1:00 PM - 1:30 PM
VA Pension Benefits
- General organization of VA
- The VA Claims Process in Eight Steps
- Orientation on VA Claims Process
- VA Pension Benefits
- Representing Clients at the Regional Office
- Sources of Law in Veterans Claims
- Burden of Proof in Veterans Cases
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
VA Claims Processes and Basic Principles of Veterans Law
- Basic VA Organization and Terminology
- Definition of a Veteran
- Proving a Claim for Disability: Three Factors
- Pre-Development
- Submission of Application
- Development of RO
- Decision of RO
- Options to Disagree with a Rating Decision (Modern Appeals System)
- Reopening Previously Decided Claims
- Collateral Attacks on Claims
- Eligibility for DIC Benefits
2:30 PM - 2:45 PM
Break
2:45 PM - 3:15 PM
Survivors Benefits
- Who Qualifies as a Survivor
- Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC)
- Death Pension (Survivors Pension)
- Accrued Benefits and Substitution
3:15 PM - 3:45 PM
Appeals to the Board of Veterans Appeals
- The Board of Veterans Appeals
- BVA Appeals
- Advice for Advocacy and Evidence Submission before the BVA
- Common RO Errors and Some BVA Errors Benefits and Substitution
Appeals to the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims
- Representing Claims before the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims
- Common BVA Errors to Appeal to CAVC
- Other Issues that May Arise on Appeal
3:45 PM - 4:15 PM
Attorney’s Fees
- Earning a Fee
- Attorney's Fees
- EAJA Awards
- Caselaw
Faculty
Richard A. J. Prebil, Esq.
Richard A.J. Prebil, Esq., is Supervising Attorney of the Veterans Advocacy Project at Legal Aid of Southeastern PA, which he helped establish in mid‐2020. The unit provides representation, advice, and outreach to veterans, specifically those who are unhoused, at risk of becoming unhoused, income insecure, and those living with disabilities. Richard primarily practices in the areas of VA benefits, discharge upgrades, and social security. Through collaborations with other legal and social service agencies, Richard has helped to grow the Veterans Unit at LASP to serve veterans in twenty counties throughout Pennsylvania. As a result of the growth of the Unit, as of September 2025, LASP has been able to assist in obtaining $5.6 million in back benefits for veterans and their families, and over $120 million dollars in increased estimated lifetime income. As a result of his advocacy work within the veteran community, Richard was invited to join and serves on U.S. Representative Madeline Dean’s Veterans Advisory Panel. When he joined LASP in 2019, Richard, based in the Chester, Delaware County, office, represented individuals in landlord/tenant, subsidized housing, child custody, public benefits, and unemployment compensation matters. Prior to joining Legal Aid, Richard was an Equal Justice Works Fellow at a non-profit in Philadelphia where he represented veterans, current military personnel, and their families, in the areas of veterans benefits, discharge upgrades, and Chapter 7 bankruptcies, in PA, NJ, and DE. During law school, he worked with many veteran and legal service organizations from Minneapolis to Chicago to Philadelphia. He received his bachelors degree from the University of Illinois Springfield and graduated from the Villanova University Charles Widger Law School (where he was awarded the Dorothy Day Award for Pro Bono Service, the Philadelphia Bar Association’s 2017 Eve Biskind Klothen Award for Pro Bono Service to the Community, and the American Bar Association Commission on Homelessness and Poverty’s 2015 John J. Curtin, Jr. Justice Fund Legal Fellowship). In addition to his role at Legal Aid, Richard is an adjunct professor at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law, teaching a course he created entitled, “Representing Veterans in Administrative Practice: A Substantive & Practical Introduction to Veterans Law.” Richard has spoken, and written, nationally, on the areas of access to justice (especially in administrative agencies), the impact and importance of legal services for those who are unhoused or living at or below the poverty level, trauma and trauma-informed advocacy, and best practices for impactful partnerships. He received the Delaware County Bar Association’s Illumination Award in 2024, the PA Legal Aid Network’s Emerging Excellence in Advocacy Award in 2025, and was recognized by the Senate of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 2025 for his work advocating for veterans. Richard is licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and is an accredited attorney with the US Department of Veterans Affairs. He is also licensed to practice before the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Thomas J. Reed
Professor Reed joined the faculty at Delaware Law School as Associate Professor of Law and served in that capacity from 1981-84; as Associate Dean and Professor of Law, 1984-93; and as Professor of Law from 1984 to 2010.Professor Reed is admitted to practice in Indiana, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, U.S. Supreme Court. Professor Reed teaches and writes in the areas of Evidence, Intensive Trial Advocacy Program, Veterans Law and Military Law, Property, Pre-Trial Methods, Trial Methods, Land Use Planning, and Wills and Trusts. Professor Reed received a B.A. from Marquette University in 1962; and a J.D. from Notre Dame Law School in 1969, where he served as a member of the Notre Dame Law Review.
Elizabeth A. Tarloski, Esq.
Elizabeth Tarloski is a staff attorney with the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP.) She represents veterans before the Board of Veterans’ Appeals and U.S. Court of Veterans Claims and provides training to veterans advocates. Before joining NVLSP, Ms. Tarloski was staff attorney at the Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania Veterans Advocacy Project. She was also a Visiting Professor at the William and Mary Law School Lewis B. Puller Jr. Veterans Benefits Clinic where she developed and taught the first law school clinic class nationwide to focus exclusively on Veterans Benefits cases specific to Military Sexual Trauma and helped to create and teach the online certificate course ‘Psychological Challenges and Resulting Legal Issues for Service Members and Veterans.’ She also served on the Supreme Court of Virginia – Special Committee on Best Practices for Veterans’ Dockets and worked with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Veterans’ Initiative Program. Ms. Tarloski is a graduate of the University of San Diego (B.A.), the London School of Economics and Political Science (M.S.) and Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law (J.D.). She is a member of the Pennsylvania State Bar and is admitted to practice before the U.S Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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