Your Condition May Not Be on the List. That Does Not Mean You Do Not Have a Case.
Many serious injuries following vaccination have been compensated in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), including conditions that do not appear anywhere on the Vaccine Injury Table. The Vaccine Injury Table is not the full picture. The VICP also compensates injuries where a sound medical theory connects the vaccination to the condition, even when that connection requires more work to establish.
The question is not whether your doctor has a definitive answer. The question is whether that medical theory can be built and supported by evidence. That is a legal and scientific determination, not a clinical one. At Jani Law PLLC, we know how to focus on causation and present compelling evidence to Special Masters at the Vaccine Court.
Dhairya Jani has practiced inside the VICP as a lead DOJ Trial Attorney and as a federal judicial law clerk at the Vaccine Court. He has the knowledge and experience you need for complex off-table injury claims. For a free and confidential consultation, contact our law firm today.
What If Your Injury Is Not on the Vaccine Injury Table?
The Vaccine Injury Table lists specific injuries paired with specific vaccines and onset windows. When your case matches the Table criteria, causation is presumed.
Your case is considered an off-table claim when:
- Your condition is not on the Vaccine Injury Table list
- Your condition is not paired with the specified vaccine on the Vaccine Injury Table
- The timing of your condition fell outside the specified window on the Vaccine Injury Table
What Makes Off-Table Vaccine Injury Claims More Complex?
Off-table cases require more preparation than Table claims. You need a causation theory, medical expert support, and a record built to address each element of the causation standard the VICP requires.
The Althen Three-Part Test: The Causation Standard for Proving Off-Table Injuries
The Althen three-part test comes from the Althen v. Secretary of Health and Human Services decision. Under this causation standard, you must show:
- General Causation: A sound and reliable medical theory explaining how the vaccine can cause the type of injury alleged.
- Specific Causation: A logical sequence of cause and effect showing the vaccine caused your specific injury.
- Temporal Connection: Onset within a medically appropriate timeframe consistent with the proposed mechanism.
Off-table cases take longer and the government contests these cases more carefully because of this causation standard. In off-table vaccine injury cases, the depth of your attorney’s VICP knowledge matters most.
Injuries That Have Been Compensated Without Being on the Vaccine Injury Table
The following conditions have been addressed in the VICP as off-table claims. This is not an exhaustive list. You may still have a case if your condition is not here.
- Transverse Myelitis: Spinal cord inflammation causing weakness, sensory loss, and bowel or bladder dysfunction.
- Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis (ADEM): Sudden widespread inflammatory attack on the myelin of the brain and spinal cord.
- Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP): The chronic relapsing counterpart of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), involving recurring nerve damage over months and years.
- Miller Fisher Syndrome: A GBS variant affecting the eyes and coordination rather than causing classic leg weakness. Often initially misdiagnosed.
- Small Fiber Neuropathy: Burning pain, tingling, numbness, and autonomic dysfunction. Diagnosis requires skin punch biopsy rather than standard nerve conduction testing.
- Optic Neuritis: Sudden vision loss and pain with eye movement.
- Bell’s Palsy: Sudden facial nerve paralysis on one side, which in some cases causes permanent weakness.
- Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP) Following Non-Table Vaccines: Immune-mediated platelet destruction causing bruising and bleeding. If your ITP followed an MMR vaccine and began within 7 to 30 days, your case may qualify as a Table injury with an even clearer path to compensation.
- Autoimmune Arthritis and Inflammatory Joint Conditions: Following non-Table vaccines or outside the Table window. If your arthritis followed a rubella-containing vaccine and began within 7 to 42 days, your case may qualify as a Table injury.
- Significant Aggravation of a Pre-Existing Condition: A separate pathway for individuals whose stable condition significantly worsened following vaccination, regardless of whether the vaccine caused the condition from scratch.
Do You Have a Viable Off-Table Vaccine Injury Case?
Not every off-table case is viable. Determining viability requires a careful review of your medical records, your vaccination history, and the existing scientific and legal landscape for your specific condition and vaccine.
That evaluation is the only way to know whether your specific facts support a viable claim.
Why Choose Jani Law PLLC for Your Off-Table Vaccine Injury Case
Off-table cases are not won on good intentions or a sympathetic story. They are won on the quality of the causation theory, the strength of the expert record, and the precision of how the medical evidence is presented to a Special Master who has seen every argument before.
Dhairya Jani was a DOJ Trial Attorney on more than 85 Vaccine Court cases, including contested off-table causation hearings. He has been on the government’s side of these cases. He knows how causation theories are evaluated, how the government develops its expert record, and what makes a case strong enough to withstand that scrutiny.
The government comes prepared. So does Jani Law PLLC.
Have You Experienced an Off-Table Vaccine Injury? Contact Jani Law PLLC Today.
As a former DOJ Vaccine Trial Attorney and federal judicial law clerk at the Vaccine Court, Dhairya Jani has practiced the VICP from every angle. He has the knowledge and experience you need for complex off-table claims.
Contact Jani Law PLLC today for a free, confidential consultation. Attorney’s fees are paid separately by the VICP. You keep 100% of any compensation awarded.