Alternative types of VA evidence (often called "lay evidence" or "secondary evidence") include any official, third-party, or personal documentation that proves service connection, stressful life events, dependent status, or a change in your functional capabilities.
When medical records are missing or incomplete, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) accepts a wide variety of non-medical documents to help substantiate claims. Examples of these documents may include:
Official Civil and Legal Records
1. Marriage certificates: Verifies lawful marriage to add a spouse as a dependent for additional compensation
2. Divorce decrees: Formally establishes the end of a prior marriage to update dependent status accuracy
3. Birth certificates: Proves biological or adopted child status to secure legally mandated dependent stipends
4. Adoption papers: Confirms legal parental rights for non-biological children added to a compensation award
5. Custody agreements: Identifies primary care structures and legal dependents for regional office verification
6. Police arrest records: Details civilian law enforcement encounters, injuries, or behavioral shifts during or after military service
7. DUI/DWI citations: Provides objective timeline markers of substance abuse coping mechanisms linked to underlying mental health conditions
8. Court transcripts: Preserves formal testimonies regarding civilian legal conflicts, behavioral struggles, or domestic disputes
Military Operational and Service Records
9. Ship logs and deck logs: Verifies a vessel’s geographic location to prove exposure to toxic substances or combat zones
10. Unit morning reports: Tracks daily personnel statuses, specific operational movements, and sudden assignments
11. Performance evaluations (FITREPs/EERs): Shows sharp, unexplained drops in performance marks that often follow an in-service trauma
12. Article 15/UCMJ actions: Documents disciplinary infractions that frequently align with the onset of PTSD or traumatic brain injuries
13. Buddy letters (Form 21-4138): Contains eyewitness accounts from service members who observed an injury, assault, or combat event VA.gov
14. Combat action ribbons/awards: Serves as conclusive primary evidence that a veteran engaged in active combat operations
Employment and Financial Evidence
15. Employment performance reviews: Highlights workplace accommodations, frequent unexcused absences, or declining productivity due to service-connected disabilities
16. Tax returns (W-2s/1040s): Demonstrates a severe, sudden drop in annual earnings to support Individual Unemployability (TDIU) or pension claims
17. Payroll and timecards: Proves excessive use of sick leave or uncompensated time off taken to manage chronic symptoms
18. Workers' compensation claims: Documents post-service physical injuries or accidents caused by service-connected physical vulnerabilities
Personal, Community, and Media Documentation
19. Personal journals/diaries: Offers contemporaneous, dated accounts of symptoms, psychological distress, or physical injuries as they happened
20. Letters to family members: Establishes a historical timeline of emotional distress or physical trauma expressed during active deployment
21. Newspaper clippings: Validates local media coverage of specific military accidents, training disasters, or civilian events
22. Photos or video footage: Graphically documents specific service locations, visible physical traumas, or geographic deployment conditions
23. Religious/spiritual leader statements: Provides trusted third-party observations of a veteran seeking spiritual counseling for mental health struggles
Verification of In-Service Stressors
Here is a list of evidence that the VA will go through in order to help verify a Veteran's in-Service Stressor.
24. After action reports (AARs)
25. Buddy Letters VA Form 21-10210
26. Combat awards, badges, decorations on the Veteran's DD-214
27. Command chronologies and war diaries
28. Letters and diaries existing during that period of time
29. Daily staff journals
30. Former prisoner of war
31. Personal Statements VA Form 21-4138
32. Police or insurance reports
33. Private medical records
34. Monthly summaries & Morning reports
35. Muster rolls
36. Newspaper accounts of the traumatic event
37. Operational reports-lessons learned (ORLLs)
38. Radio logs, Deck logs, and ship histories
39. Service as drone aircraft crew member
40. Service treatment records (STRs) or service personnel records
41. Statement in Support of Claimed Mental Health Disorder(s) Due to an In-Service Traumatic Event(s) (VA Form 21-0781 required for PTSD claims)
42. Unit and organizational histories
