Editorial Standards

Last updated July 8, 2026.

1. Purpose and Scope

Vetus Legal LLC publishes articles and guides to help veterans understand VA disability compensation. This page sets the standard every published article must meet before it goes live, and the obligations we hold ourselves to afterward — sourcing, review, currency, corrections, and how readers can flag a problem. It governs blog posts and other informational content published under the Vetus Legal name.

These standards do not themselves constitute legal advice, and nothing here modifies or narrows the disclaimers that accompany individual articles.

2. Author Qualifications, Review, and Transparency

• Every article is written or reviewed by Todd Wesche, Managing Attorney and Founder of Vetus Legal LLC, a VA-accredited attorney licensed in Massachusetts. He clerked for Judge Kasold at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, holds a J.D. cum laude from Suffolk University Law School and an LL.M. from The George Washington University Law School, and has spent more than twenty years in veterans’ law, dating to that clerkship.
• If a contributor other than Mr. Wesche drafts an article, that person is identified by name and credential in the byline, and Mr. Wesche, or a named, credentialed reviewer under his supervision, reviews and signs off on the article before publication — regardless of who drafted it.
• No article is published anonymously or under a fabricated byline.
• Every published article links from the byline to a dedicated Author Bio Page. That page details the author’s credentials, bar admissions, education, and experience, and links out to verifiable third-party profiles, including Avvo, the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers (BBO) attorney lookup, LinkedIn, and the VA Office of General Counsel’s accreditation roster.

AI Use in Content Creation

• AI tools may be used to outline articles and produce initial drafts.
• AI is not used to generate or verify legal citations, quotes, or statutory text. All research is independently confirmed against primary sources before publication, per the sourcing standards in Section 3 — no AI-drafted citation or quote is published without that verification.
• As with all content — see above — every article is edited, finalized, and personally signed off by Mr. Wesche, or a named, credentialed reviewer under his supervision, before publication, regardless of how the draft originated.

3. Sourcing, Accuracy, and Readability

• Statutes and bill text are sourced to Congress.gov or GovInfo; regulations to the eCFR; VA policy to VA.gov. Sources are listed at the end of every article.
• Regulatory and statutory text is quoted verbatim wherever the exact wording matters — for example, comparing a current rule to a proposed one — rather than paraphrased and presented as the rule.
• We do not invent or attribute a quote to a person or organization we cannot source to a named, checkable origin.
• We distinguish bill from law, proposed from current, and state effective dates precisely. Fast-moving items carry an “as of [date]” note.
• Every factual or legal claim in an article traces to a source listed in that article’s Sources section.
• To improve readability, we use a Direct-Answer Format: for common questions, we give a clear, conversational, self-contained answer immediately beneath the heading, before any complex statutory analysis.
• Our authors also draw on first-hand professional experience in long-form guides — procedural insights and practical observations about how claims move through the system. This experience illustrates process, not outcome: it is never used to predict or imply how the VA will decide a particular claim.

4. Review, Currency, and Update Policy

• Every article carries a visible review line — the reviewing attorney’s name and the review date.
• Evergreen guides are reviewed at least every six to twelve months. Legislation and news articles are re-checked whenever the underlying bill or rule moves, and periodically otherwise.
• Content about proposed changes that never became law remains available for historical purposes, clearly marked as such.
• Any substantive update triggers re-verification of the underlying law or regulation before the “last updated” date is changed.
• A dated “last updated” line is visible on every article.

5. Medical and Health-Related Content

• Vetus Legal does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment guidance.
• Health-related claims are cited to authoritative sources — the VA, NIH, Mayo Clinic, or peer-reviewed literature.
• Our content addresses the legal and claims implications of a condition, not its clinical management.

6. Vulnerable-Audience and Crisis-Safety Protocol

• Veterans are a high-risk population, and our content is written with that in mind.
• Any article touching mental health, PTSD, military sexual trauma, self-harm, or suicide displays the Veterans Crisis Line prominently near the top: dial 988, then press 1, or text 838255 — available 24/7.
• Such articles avoid graphic detail, discussion of methods, and sensational framing.

7. Advertising Compliance and Outcome Claims

• Vetus Legal content is attorney advertising and is labeled as such.
• No article states or implies a specific outcome — an approval, a rating percentage, a dollar amount, back pay, or a timeline — that the firm does not control.
• Every article carries the required disclaimer: that it is general information, not legal advice; that reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship; and that readers should consult a VA-accredited attorney or representative about their specific situation.
• Our content is written to comply with Massachusetts Rule of Professional Conduct 7.1 and the related rules governing attorney communications about legal services.

8. Corrections Policy

• Substantive errors — a misstated rule, an incorrect citation, or a factual error that materially affects an article’s guidance — are corrected as soon as we identify them. The article is updated, its “last updated” date changes, and a brief correction note states what changed and when.
• Minor errors — typos, formatting, broken links — are corrected without a separate notice.
• We do not make substantive corrections silently. Readers can always see when, and that, an article was updated.

9. Reader Feedback and Error Reporting

• Readers who believe an article contains an error can report it at vetuslegal.com/contact.
• Todd Wesche, or his designee, with Mr. Wesche’s oversight, reviews every report within five business days.
• Where a report identifies a genuine error, we correct it following the process in Section 8, and we will let the reader know once it is resolved if they have provided a way to reach them.

10. Questions About These Standards

Direct any question about these editorial standards to Vetus Legal LLC at vetuslegal.com/contact.