The Board denied the veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for the grant of service connection for multiple sclerosis, finding that the March 16, 1999 was the earliest possible date due to lack of prior claims.
The deciding factor: The effective date must be the later of the date entitlement arose or the date of receipt of the claim. The veteran's diagnosis with Multiple Sclerosis occurred in July 1987 but she did not file a claim until March 16, 1999.
- Claimed conditions
- Multiple Sclerosis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 7, 2003
- Citation
- 0304014
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,055 · Granted: 31% (granted or partly granted, in the vetted 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. Look up the original decision on VA.gov (opens in a new tab) using citation 0304014.
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