Welcome to Legal Tip Tuesday. I’m Michael  Quatrini, and I’m here to talk to you about veterans’ disability. What we’re looking at  a VA disability appeal, one of the strategies we use is the intermediate step process. For  instance, with obesity, it cannot be claimed as a service-connected condition alone, but it can  result from something that has caused you to be inactive. Maybe that’s cancer, maybe that’s a back  problem. And because of the pain and limitation, you’ve put on weight, and that weight  gain eventually leads to other problems: kidney disease, heart conditions. In the VA  process, we’re able to argue that although

obesity cannot be on its own, a service-connected  condition that entitles you to benefits. That the obesity can be the intermediate step between  the original service, connected condition, and eventually the other secondary problems  like heart disease, kidney disease or the like. This is just one of the many strategies  we use when trying to make sure that a veteran gets the highest percentage and the most  service-connected conditions possible. Thank you.