Research · Veterans
How many VA-accredited attorneys and agents are there for each veteran?
The VA keeps a public list of the attorneys and claims agents it has accredited to help veterans with benefit claims. Counted by the state in each person’s business address, it shows 5,174 accredited attorneys and 713 accredited claims agents for about 17.3 million living veterans. That is one accredited attorney for every 3,336 veterans. By state, it runs from 93 veterans per attorney in District of Columbia to 45,000 in North Dakota.
What does it show?
- The offices are lopsided. District of Columbia has 279 accredited attorneys for about 26,000 veterans, one for every 93. Rhode Island (588) and Maine (1,429) come next. At the other end are North Dakota (45,000), Alaska (11,333) and Idaho (11,000).
- Five places hold 35.4% of the list. Florida (657), Texas (389), New York (382), California (376) and District of Columbia (281) together have 2,085 of the 5,887 accredited attorneys and agents, and 28% of the veterans.
- Most counties have none. 2,333 of 3,135 counties, 74.4%, have no accredited attorney or agent with a business address there. About 4.1 million veterans live in them.
- The list is young. 39.2% of today’s 5,887 accredited attorneys and agents were accredited in 2024 or later, and 830 (14.1%) in the 12 months before October 28, 2026.
- Appeal outcomes differ by representation, but that is not proof of cause. Of the Board’s 14,500 Legacy-system decisions in fiscal year 2024 where an attorney represented the veteran, 42.7% were allowed, against 29.7% of the 4,544 with no representative.
Veterans for each accredited attorney, state by state
The table runs from the most accredited attorneys for each veteran to the fewest. The veteran counts are the VA’s projection for September 30, 2026, rounded to the nearest 1,000. “Per 100,000” counts attorneys and claims agents together.
| State | Attorneys | Claims agents | Veterans | Veterans per attorney | Per 100,000 veterans | Accredited in the last 12 months |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 279 | 2 | 26,000 | 93 | 1080.8 | 49 |
| Rhode Island | 85 | 79 | 50,000 | 588 | 328.0 | 25 |
| Maine | 70 | 5 | 100,000 | 1,429 | 75.0 | 13 |
| Nebraska | 78 | 19 | 112,000 | 1,436 | 86.6 | 14 |
| New York | 367 | 15 | 591,000 | 1,610 | 64.6 | 60 |
| Connecticut | 72 | 2 | 136,000 | 1,889 | 54.4 | 4 |
| Massachusetts | 128 | 9 | 247,000 | 1,930 | 55.5 | 19 |
| Florida | 562 | 95 | 1,361,000 | 2,422 | 48.3 | 100 |
| New Jersey | 102 | 9 | 274,000 | 2,686 | 40.5 | 14 |
| Delaware | 22 | 0 | 61,000 | 2,773 | 36.1 | 1 |
| Illinois | 201 | 23 | 572,000 | 2,846 | 39.2 | 28 |
| Michigan | 154 | 11 | 461,000 | 2,994 | 35.8 | 15 |
| Pennsylvania | 208 | 12 | 627,000 | 3,014 | 35.1 | 17 |
| Louisiana | 80 | 10 | 242,000 | 3,025 | 37.2 | 19 |
| Kansas | 55 | 9 | 171,000 | 3,109 | 37.4 | 11 |
| Utah | 40 | 6 | 125,000 | 3,125 | 36.8 | 4 |
| Georgia | 187 | 53 | 645,000 | 3,449 | 37.2 | 37 |
| Indiana | 100 | 13 | 349,000 | 3,490 | 32.4 | 8 |
| North Carolina | 190 | 40 | 669,000 | 3,521 | 34.4 | 23 |
| Alabama | 93 | 6 | 332,000 | 3,570 | 29.8 | 11 |
| Arkansas | 52 | 8 | 194,000 | 3,731 | 30.9 | 8 |
| Virginia | 174 | 24 | 663,000 | 3,810 | 29.9 | 21 |
| Kentucky | 62 | 5 | 250,000 | 4,032 | 26.8 | 15 |
| California | 331 | 45 | 1,338,000 | 4,042 | 28.1 | 57 |
| New Hampshire | 21 | 1 | 87,000 | 4,143 | 25.3 | 4 |
| Maryland | 80 | 12 | 337,000 | 4,212 | 27.3 | 15 |
| Missouri | 87 | 9 | 371,000 | 4,264 | 25.9 | 11 |
| Ohio | 145 | 9 | 626,000 | 4,317 | 24.6 | 22 |
| Texas | 345 | 44 | 1,509,000 | 4,374 | 25.8 | 73 |
| South Carolina | 84 | 11 | 382,000 | 4,548 | 24.9 | 17 |
| Mississippi | 38 | 7 | 175,000 | 4,605 | 25.7 | 6 |
| Tennessee | 91 | 19 | 421,000 | 4,626 | 26.1 | 8 |
| West Virginia | 21 | 4 | 115,000 | 5,476 | 21.7 | 5 |
| Colorado | 63 | 6 | 353,000 | 5,603 | 19.5 | 9 |
| Wisconsin | 54 | 5 | 304,000 | 5,630 | 19.4 | 12 |
| Vermont | 6 | 0 | 35,000 | 5,833 | 17.1 | 2 |
| Minnesota | 45 | 5 | 270,000 | 6,000 | 18.5 | 2 |
| Montana | 14 | 0 | 85,000 | 6,071 | 16.5 | 2 |
| Wyoming | 7 | 1 | 44,000 | 6,286 | 18.2 | 0 |
| Nevada | 32 | 12 | 205,000 | 6,406 | 21.5 | 7 |
| Arizona | 70 | 16 | 463,000 | 6,614 | 18.6 | 15 |
| Oklahoma | 39 | 13 | 271,000 | 6,949 | 19.2 | 8 |
| Washington | 70 | 16 | 487,000 | 6,957 | 17.7 | 9 |
| Oregon | 29 | 2 | 249,000 | 8,586 | 12.4 | 4 |
| Iowa | 18 | 1 | 168,000 | 9,333 | 11.3 | 2 |
| Hawaii | 10 | 1 | 103,000 | 10,300 | 10.7 | 1 |
| South Dakota | 6 | 1 | 62,000 | 10,333 | 11.3 | 0 |
| New Mexico | 14 | 1 | 146,000 | 10,429 | 10.3 | 2 |
| Idaho | 11 | 3 | 121,000 | 11,000 | 11.6 | 2 |
| Alaska | 6 | 1 | 68,000 | 11,333 | 10.3 | 2 |
| North Dakota | 1 | 3 | 45,000 | 45,000 | 8.9 | 0 |
| United States | 5,174 | 713 | 17,260,000 | 3,336 | 34.1 | 830 |
Puerto Rico and the island territories are in the files but not in the ranking: American Samoa has 0 accredited attorneys and 0 agents, Guam has 2 accredited attorneys and 0 agents, Northern Mariana Islands has 0 accredited attorneys and 0 agents, Puerto Rico has 44 accredited attorneys and 4 agents and U.S. Virgin Islands has 0 accredited attorneys and 0 agents. 35 more show a blank, military, foreign or unrecognised state. Every state has at least one accredited attorney; North Dakota (1), Alaska (6), South Dakota (6), Vermont (6) and Wyoming (7) have fewer than 10.
Which counties have an accredited office, and which have none?
Each business ZIP code is placed in the county that holds most of its land area, using the Census Bureau’s ZIP-code-to-county file. Of 3,135 counties, 2,333 have none. The biggest counties without one are Kern, CA (about 32,000 veterans), Comanche, OK (about 24,000 veterans), Cochise, AZ (about 19,000 veterans), Weld, CO (about 17,000 veterans) and Jackson, OR (about 16,000 veterans). Connecticut, Puerto Rico and the island territories are left out of the county files because the VA’s county table does not use their counties.
| County | Attorneys and agents | Veterans |
|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia, DC | 268 | 26,000 |
| New York, NY | 203 | 25,000 |
| Cook, IL | 128 | 133,000 |
| Providence, RI | 119 | 24,000 |
| Los Angeles, CA | 95 | 215,000 |
| Dallas, TX | 74 | 83,000 |
| Harris, TX | 74 | 163,000 |
| San Diego, CA | 67 | 219,000 |
All 3,135 counties are in the county file (CSV) and JSON. Counts are people with a business ZIP code in the county, not people who serve that county’s veterans.
How did appeals turn out for veterans with each kind of representative?
The Board of Veterans’ Appeals decided 116,192 appeals in fiscal year 2024: 44,930 under the older Legacy system and 71,262 under the Appeals Modernization Act (AMA). Its report breaks down the Legacy decisions by who represented the veteran.
| Representative | Decisions | Allowed | Remanded | Denied | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attorney | 14,500 | 42.7% | 39.3% | 12.7% | 5.3% |
| Claims agent | 1,087 | 37.5% | 43.1% | 15.7% | 3.6% |
| No representative | 4,544 | 29.7% | 43% | 21.2% | 6.1% |
| All Legacy decisions | 44,930 | 35.2% | 44.1% | 16.4% | 4.4% |
| All AMA decisions | 71,262 | 38.4% | 28.4% | 17% | 16.2% |
Allowed means the veteran got at least some relief with nothing sent back. Remanded means at least one issue went back to the VA regional office for more work, even if others were allowed or denied. The Board counts an appeal in the first category that applies, in that order. The report does not publish the AMA decisions by type of representation, so the last row is for comparison only.
Attorney-represented appeals were allowed 42.7% of the time and remanded 39.3%, while appeals with no representative were allowed 29.7% and remanded 43%. These are Board-wide counts of decided appeals. They do not show that representation changed the outcome: the cases that attorneys, agents and veterans without help bring to the Board can differ in many ways.
What do these numbers not tell you?
- They count people by the business address on the VA list. An accredited attorney or agent can help a veteran in any state, so the ratio is about where offices are, not about how many veterans each person serves.
- An accreditation is the VA’s permission to help with claims. It says nothing about experience, results or fees, and the lists do not show whether a person is taking new clients.
- Veterans service organizations also have accredited representatives. They are not counted here.
- The veteran counts are the VA’s projection, rounded to the nearest 1,000. Below 5,000 veterans, that rounding can be more than a tenth of the count, so those rows are marked as noisy in the files.
- About 6.9% of the people placed in a state could not be placed in a county, because their ZIP code is a post-office-box ZIP or has no Census match. They count in the state, not in any county.
- The lists change as people are accredited. This is one snapshot, and each monthly refresh adds a row to the history file.
Questions
How many VA-accredited attorneys and claims agents are there?
On October 28, 2026, the VA Office of General Counsel’s complete lists showed 5,174 accredited attorneys and 713 accredited claims agents, 5,887 in all. 35 of them show no US state in their business address, so they are in the national count and in no state’s.
Does a state with many veterans per attorney leave veterans without help?
Not by itself. The count is by the state of each person’s business address, and a veteran can work with an accredited attorney or agent in another state, over the phone or online. So the ratio shows where offices are, not how many veterans each person serves. Veterans service organizations also have accredited representatives who are not counted here.
Where do the numbers come from?
The accreditation counts come from the VA Office of General Counsel’s complete lists of accredited attorneys and claims agents. The veteran counts are the VA’s VetPop2023 projection for September 30, 2026, rounded to the nearest 1,000 as the VA asks. The appeal outcomes come from the Board of Veterans’ Appeals Chairman’s report for fiscal year 2024.
Is any attorney or agent named on this page or in the files?
No. The VA’s lists name every person, with a phone number and ZIP code. This page and its files carry counts by state and county only.
Cite and download
Cite this as: Probative. (2026). VA-accredited attorneys and claims agents per veteran, by state, with county counts and Board of Veterans' Appeals outcomes by type of representation (Version 1.0.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23740008 The state file and the county file are free under CC BY 4.0. The lookup, comparison and search tools for the same counts are on the dataset page.
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