The Board denied the veteran's claims for service connection for a right ankle disorder and a back disorder, finding that new and material evidence had not been submitted to reopen the right ankle claim and concluding that there was no current objective evidence of a chronic back disorder attributable to service.
The deciding factor: The evidence did not show current right ankle pathology related to an inservice injury, and there is no current objective evidence of a chronic back disorder attributable to service.
- Claimed conditions
- Right ankle disorder, Back disorder
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating
- Not verified here — check the original decision
- Decision date
- January 28, 2003
- Citation
- 0301616
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,377 · Granted: 17% (granted or partly granted, in the indexed decisions on this site)
Judge attribution: 2025 complete; earlier years partial.
This is a plain-language summary generated by AI from a public Board of Veterans’ Appeals decision. It can contain errors — always verify against the original. Search VA.gov for the original decision (opens in a new tab) using citation 0301616.
What this means for you
A final Board denial may be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, generally within 120 days of the Board mailing date. A Supplemental Claim with new and relevant evidence is a separate option. Another Higher-Level Review of the Board decision is not available. Check your own notice: this historical decision does not set your deadline.
What you can do next
Use your own notice and decision stage. A remanded issue is not a final court-appealable denial. VA review guidance and CAVC filing instructions (U.S. federal; reviewed October 7, 2026).
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Board denied service connection for the Veteran's right ankle disorder, finding that it was not shown to be related to his active duty service and did not meet the criteria for secondary service connection due to his left ankle disability.
- Whole decision: Granted
The Board has granted service connection for a right ankle disorder and a lung disorder, finding that the conditions are related to active-duty service.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection of a right ankle disorder, finding that there was no evidence linking his current condition to his military service.
- Whole decision: Granted
The Veteran's back disorder is granted a rating of 10 percent, and his chronic kidney disease is granted service connection based on being secondary to his service-connected hypertension.
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