The payment was refused
A refusal is a decision of a public body, not a final verdict. It can be challenged, and many refusals do not withstand scrutiny.
But let us be honest from the start: some refusals are lawful. The law provides for cases in which the payment is not granted, and no lawyer can get around that. So the work starts not with a claim, but with telling one from the other.
Where to start, before time runs out
Demand a written refusal stating the ground. A verbal “you are not entitled” cannot be challenged: formally there is no decision, and nothing to object to.
The time limit for challenging the refusal runs from the day you received it, and it is limited. If you miss the deadline, you can ask the court for permission to bring the challenge out of time, but this involves additional work and an unnecessary risk.
Why payments are refused
There are in fact few grounds, and almost each of them has its own way of being resolved.
The death was found not to be related to service
The most common and the most costly ground. It arises when a person died of an illness, in hospital, or some time after being wounded, and the Military Medical Commission did not establish a link with service.
This is not final: the Commission’s decision is based on medical documents, and if the Commission did not see some of them, the picture changes. More on the page “Causal link and the Military Medical Commission”.
The circumstances of death are not confirmed by documents
The authority does not dispute the fact of death — it says it has no document confirming the circumstances. Most often that document exists, but the military unit did not issue it, or it did not reach the person making the decision. This is a matter of obtaining documents, not of a dispute.
You were not recognised as a person entitled to the payment
This happens when the marriage was not registered, when the family relationship is not confirmed by documents, or when someone else is also claiming the payment. Each of these situations is resolved separately: living together as one family and financial dependency, disputes between recipients.
Formal grounds
An incomplete set of documents, a mistake in a date or surname, an application filed with the wrong authority, inconsistencies between documents. It sounds minor, but the result is the same — a refusal. This is usually the quickest to put right.
Grounds that the law genuinely provides for
There are circumstances in which the payment is not granted, and that is not the authority being arbitrary. If we see exactly such a case, we will say so plainly — even if you came hoping to hear something else. We will not take money for a case without prospects.
Two ways to challenge a refusal
These routes do not exclude each other, but the order matters: choosing the wrong route costs time, and here time works against you.
What decides the case
Not eloquence in the courtroom, but documents. The court looks at what is in the case file: medical records, the circumstances of the wound, orders, information from the unit, correspondence with the authority. That is why most of the work in such cases is obtaining what is not in your hands.
A private person waits a long time for answers to such requests, or gets none. An advocate’s request — a formal request for information that a Ukrainian advocate is entitled to send — must be answered in writing, and failing to answer is a separate violation.
What it costs
No advance payment. The fee is 15 percent of the amount granted to you, and only if the payment actually arrives. The firm covers the case expenses. Details are in the section “What it costs”.
The outcome of every case depends on its circumstances and evidence. Nothing on this page is a promise or guarantee of any particular result.