Virginia A.Girard-Brady

ABS LEGAL SERVICES is a law firm. We represent American veterans from all over the United States. Service to them is our heart and soul. Everything we do helps veterans, from assisting them with their VA disability claims to other related claims and issues. Our clients are the men and women who were sent into battle, who assaulted the hills, who swept the jungles, and who trudged through sand. Our oldest veteran client is 94 years old and our youngest is 21. They enjoyed no privileges. They took the orders. They won the battles. They fought the wars, World War II through the latest conflict in Iraq. Then they came home to fight another war: to get the benefits American law promised American soldiers.

We represent men and women who have very little and who have lost much due to their military service. They served well and were honorably discharged from the service. Their military records contain evidence that they should be given VA benefits but we must fight the VA bureaucracy in order to get those benefits for the veteran.

At the same time, our representation of the veteran is strictly regulated by the VA. Relatively speaking, very few attorneys practice in this area of the law, because it is not an area designed to make an attorney rich, at least in monetary terms. However, at the end of the day, one can go home and feel that something has been accomplished, no matter how small, for a person who needed and deserved legal help. It is a gratifying way to put one’s legal training to good use.

In terms of numbers, we are not a large law firm. Virginia A. Girard-Brady is the attorney in the firm. She has many years of legal experience, much of it spent representing veterans.  ABS Legal Services employ 2 – 3 law clerks or law students who assist her. The firm has  3 –4 legal assistants who work as case workers on the veterans’ files. Because many veterans need help with social security claims, we have three employees and one attorney who handle those types of claims for veterans. This allows us to use the evidence in the veteran’s case in the social security case and visa versa.

Often we take cases turned down by other lawyers because we believe in the veteran and his/her cause. In one such case, we were able to get over ten (10) years of back pay for a World War II veteran after no other lawyer would help him. We are still working for that veteran and he is 86 years old.