Intel File LAY-010 // Lay Evidence
Buddy Statements: Say What You Saw
Your buddy statement does not need to sound like it was written by an attorney. In fact, sometimes that is the problem. Education only. This is not legal advice, medical advice, representation, or claim-specific strategy.
What did they see? What did they hear? What changed? When did they notice it? That is where lay evidence can be powerful.
Eligible witnesses
"Buddy" doesn't just mean someone you served with.
A statement can come from someone who has relevant firsthand knowledge. That includes someone you served with, your spouse or a family member, a friend, or a coworker.
Different witnesses can establish different things. Your squad mate may know what happened on deployment. Your spouse may know what you have been dealing with every night for the last ten years. Do not ask one person to testify about something they were not there to see.
Write what was witnessed
Firsthand beats fancy.
- "I was standing beside him when he fell from the truck."
- "Before deployment he slept normally. After he returned, I began seeing him wake up several times a night and have nightmares."
- "We worked together from 2019 through 2023. I personally saw him leave work early several times because of his headaches."
- "In my professional opinion, his migraines are at least as likely as not caused by military service."
Unless your buddy happens to possess the appropriate medical expertise, you have probably just asked him to play doctor.
Don't put a stethoscope on your buddy because you found a phrase on Google.
Specificity wins
Details beat adjectives.
- "When we worked together, I saw him stop several times during a shift because he couldn't remain standing. I also saw him ask other employees to lift items he previously lifted himself."
- "His back is really bad."
The detailed version gives VA something observable. Don't just say bad, severe, terrible, constant. Describe what those words actually mean.
Know the boundary
A buddy statement doesn't automatically fix a medical question.
Lay evidence can help establish events, symptoms, observations, changes in behavior, functional problems, and other things the person is competent to observe.
But a complicated medical question may still require medical evidence or a medical opinion. So don't hand your roommate a blank page and ask him to establish the pathophysiology of obstructive sleep apnea.
Use lay evidence for what people can observe. Use medical evidence for what requires medical expertise. Mixing them up wastes everybody's time.
Credibility protection
Don't write it for them.
Tell the witness what information you're trying to document. Then let them describe what they remember.
If six buddy statements arrive using identical sentences, identical terminology, and the exact same suspiciously polished paragraph structure... well. Buster has questions.
The value of the statement is that it reflects the witness's firsthand knowledge. Let it sound like them.
Quality over quantity
More statements aren't automatically better.
Ten people saying the same vague thing isn't necessarily stronger than one person providing specific, relevant observations. Pick witnesses who actually know something relevant to the issue you're trying to establish.
The selection test
Don't ask: "Who will write me a buddy letter?"
Ask: "Who actually saw this?" That person has something useful to say. Then let them say it.
Buster's Field Guide to VA Claims goes deeper in its Lay & Buddy Statements chapter: firsthand knowledge, credibility, symptom observations, service events, spouse and coworker statements, Supplemental Claims, and where lay evidence stops and medical evidence begins. (Chapter page number to be confirmed in the manuscript.)