Military and Veterans Law: A Comprehensive Guide to USERRA the SCRA and VA Benefits

146 questions on military and veterans law, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Are independent contractors covered by USERRA?
• Can a creditor escape the 6% cap?
• Can a creditor penalize a servicemember for invoking the SCRA?
• Can a landlord deduct an early-termination fee from a servicemember's deposit?
• Can an asset buyer inherit a USERRA reemployment obligation it never knew about?
• Can an employer compel a USERRA claim into arbitration?
• Can an employer or creditor contract around USERRA or the SCRA?
• Can a protected mortgage be foreclosed non-judicially?
• Can a state employer claim sovereign immunity against a USERRA damages suit?
• Can the escalator move down?
• Does an independent HR investigation break the cat's-paw causal chain?
• Does it matter that the servicemember volunteered for the deployment?
• Does missing the reemployment deadline forfeit the servicemember's rights?
• Does SCRA limitations tolling require a showing of prejudice?
• Does the 6% cap apply to a credit card opened after enlistment?
• Does the escalator entitle a returning employee to a promotion she never received?
• Does the replacement employee's incumbency defeat a returning servicemember's claim?
• Does the SCRA have a private right of action?
• Does the SCRA make servicemembers un-evictable?
• Does USERRA have an employee-count threshold?
• Does USERRA have a statute of limitations?
• Does USERRA's retaliation provision protect people who never served?
• How and when does an SCRA lease termination take effect?
• How demanding is USERRA's undue-hardship standard?
• How does appellate review work in the military justice system?
• How does a servicemember claim the 6% interest cap, and how far back does it reach?
• How does a veteran fix a bad discharge characterization?
• How does military service affect state residency and taxation?
• How does the Agent Orange presumption work, and what did Procopio change?
• How does the SCRA apply to a deployed soldier whose home was sold at a trustee's sale?
• How does the VA handle PTSD claims based on military sexual trauma or fear of hostile activity?
• How does the VA rating schedule work?
• How does USERRA's accommodation duty compare with the ADA's?
• How does USERRA's causation standard compare to Title VII and the ADEA?
• How does USERRA's five-year cumulative service cap actually work?
• How do Gulf War undiagnosed-illness claims differ from ordinary claims?
• How do State Active Duty, Title 32, and Title 10 differ?
• How do you tell a seniority perquisite from ordinary compensation?
• How far has the Feres doctrine been extended?
• How is an SCRA § 3932 stay different from a § 3931 protection?
• How is Article 31(b) broader than Miranda?
• How is military retired pay treated in divorce?
• How is veterans' preference enforced?
• How long is the SCRA's post-service foreclosure protection?
• How much does lay evidence count in a VA claim?
• How quickly must reemployment occur?
• If a returning employee is unfamiliar with a new system, can the employer say she is unqualified?
• Is a drill weekend protected service under USERRA?
• Is an SCRA stay automatic in every case?
• Is a reemployed servicemember still at will?
• Is court-martial jurisdiction based on the offense or on the accused's status?
• Is laches available against a stale USERRA claim?
• Is the 120-day deadline to appeal to the CAVC jurisdictional?
• Is the interest above 6% forgiven or merely deferred?
• Is Walters v. National Association of Radiation Survivors still good law on attorney fees?
• May a lawyer charge a fee for helping a veteran file an initial VA claim?
• Must an employer pay wages during military leave?
• Must health coverage be reinstated even if the employee dropped it during deployment?
• What additional obligations does VEVRAA impose on federal contractors?
• What are the channels for enforcing a USERRA claim?
• What are the deadlines for reporting back or applying for reemployment?
• What are the employer's three affirmative defenses to USERRA reemployment?
• What are the five prerequisites to USERRA reemployment?
• What are the limits of the Feres doctrine?
• What are the military justice forums?
• What are the recurring SCRA interest-cap compliance failures?
• What are the recurring traps in military and veterans law?
• What are the remaining traps a practitioner should carry as a checklist?
• What are the three AMA review lanes and when should each be chosen?
• What are the three Board dockets under the AMA?
• What are the three elements of direct service connection?
• What are the three engines of military and veterans law?
• What are the traps in veterans' preference?
• What are the VA's duties to notify and to assist?
• What are USERRA's health-coverage continuation rules?
• What benefits must an employer provide while an employee is away on military service?
• What can the Federal Circuit review in a veterans case?
• What collateral consequences of military justice reach civilian practice?
• What counts as "interest" for the 6% cap?
• What counts as "service in the uniformed services"?
• What did Feres v. United States hold, and on what rationales?
• What did Staub v. Proctor Hospital decide?
• What did the Camp Lejeune Justice Act do, and can new claims still be filed?
• What did the FY2022 NDAA change about prosecutorial authority?
• What did the PACT Act do?
• What do Boone v. Lightner and Fishgold say about construing these statutes?
• What does a full USERRA and VA analysis look like for a returning Guard sergeant?
• What does SCRA § 3931 require of a plaintiff seeking a default judgment?
• What does SCRA § 3953 protect, and what makes it the statute's sharpest weapon?
• What does the "changed circumstances" defense not cover?
• What does the SCRA's 6% interest cap actually do?
• What does veterans' preference in federal hiring actually buy?
• What evidence proves that military service was a motivating factor?
• What form must advance notice of military service take?
• What happens if a court refuses an additional SCRA stay?
• What is a "claim shark" and why is partnering with one a problem?
• What is a dual-status military technician?
• What is a Section 1151 claim?
• What is continuity of symptomatology?
• What is secondary service connection?
• What is TDIU and why is it called the most underused benefit in the system?
• What is the benefit-of-the-doubt rule?
• What is the Board of Veterans' Appeals and what can it do?
• What is the CAVC and what can it review?
• What is the difference between SCRA § 3951 and § 3955?
• What is the escalator principle?
• What is the presumption of soundness, and how is it rebutted?
• What is the pro-veteran canon, and where does it come from?
• What is the Richard Stayskal Act and what are its limits?
• What is the status of a legacy VA appeal filed before February 19, 2019?
• What is USERRA's causation standard, and who bears the burden?
• What makes a VA examination legally inadequate?
• What must a court do before entering judgment against a servicemember who has not appeared?
• What other rating doctrines should a practitioner know?
• What other SCRA tools address judgments and contractual penalties?
• What protects a Guard member activated on state orders?
• What remedies does USERRA provide?
• What special appointing authorities exist for veterans?
• What two documents must accompany a § 3932 stay application?
• What VA benefits besides disability compensation should a veteran be screened for?
• What VA steps should a returning servicemember take immediately?
• When does the "brief, nonrecurrent employment" defense work?
• When may a servicemember terminate a motor-vehicle lease?
• When may a servicemember terminate a residential lease under the SCRA?
• When must a court reopen a default judgment against a servicemember?
• When must the VA provide a medical examination?
• Which discharges forfeit USERRA rights?
• Which position must the employer give a returning servicemember?
• Which SCRA protections extend past release from service?
• Who bears the burden of showing prejudice from a VA procedural error?
• Who counts as a "servicemember" under the SCRA?
• Who funds the pension gap created by a deployment?
• Who is a preference eligible, and what are the point categories?
• Whom does USERRA's anti-discrimination provision protect?
• Who pays fees and costs in a USERRA case?
• Who qualifies as a "veteran" for VA benefits, and does the discharge have to be Honorable?
• Why are USERRA and the SCRA framed as national-defense measures rather than employee or consumer rights?
• Why doesn't 50% plus 30% plus 10% equal 90%?
• Why does the VA use presumptions of service connection?
• Why do SCRA cases so often arrive as class actions?
• Why is a National Guard member's duty status the most consequential fact in the case?
• Why is the SCRA's National Guard definition so easy to fail?
• Why is the USERRA pension violation so dangerous?
• Why is the VA claims process described as non-adversarial?
• Why is Title 32 § 502(f) the domestic-operations workhorse?
• Why was the legacy VA appeals system replaced?