Maine approves ban on groups that charge veterans to access VA benefits

AUGUSTA, Maine — It will soon become illegal for unaccredited people and groups referred to as “claim sharks” to charge Maine veterans a fee to help them access their benefits.

Gov. Janet Mills signed into a law earlier in April a proposal from Sen. Brad Farrin, R-Norridgewock, that bans entities from receiving money — including “excessive or unreasonable” fees — for helping veterans obtain VA benefits. The new law, which exempts accredited organizations and Maine Veterans’ Home staff, will take effect in July.

Farrin, who served for nearly 30 years in the Maine Air National Guard, worked with the Veterans of Foreign Wars on the bill that received unanimous support in the Legislature and mimics federal legislation backed by Maine’s congressional delegation.

However, it faced opposition from well-known Maine veteran Travis Mills and a national trade group led by one of former President Donald Trump’s acting Veterans Affairs secretaries, who argued the ban would lump in good actors with bad actors while removing choices for veterans amid a national backlog of more than 300,000 claims .

The National Association for Veteran Rights and its two member firms said they have helped hundreds of Maine veterans more quickly receive full benefits while charging them five times the increase in monthly compensation they help them earn. For example, a veteran goes from receiving $500 to $1,000 in benefits, the private firm will charge the veteran a total of $2,500.

The private firms have challenged a similar New Jersey law in court, and New York also has a statute targeting “claim sharks” on the books.

But Farrin said a veteran “should never have to give away part of the benefit they earned.”

The VFW also said “claim sharks” are aggressively soliciting veterans and charging thousands of dollars to help obtain VA benefits that veterans service organizations and accredited attorneys can secure for them for free or at a much lower cost.

Jared Sawyer, quartermaster for the VFW post in Portland , said the private groups can still operate in Maine under the new law as long as they receive certification through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“We’re pretty excited that the bill’s going to take effect and the guardrails are going to be put back up to protect some of our most vulnerable veterans,” Sawyer said.

Moving forward, the VFW wants to focus next year on forming a veterans caucus for state lawmakers, secure permanent rather than stopgap funding for Maine Veterans’ Homes and update tax laws affecting veterans.

“There is a lot of contention in politics, but [with] veteran issues, we can all come together and agree on things,” Sawyer said.