The Board has remanded the case due to incomplete development and need for further examinations, including orthopedic, neurological, and psychiatric evaluations.
The deciding factor: Further examination is required to properly assess the veteran's disability status and its impact on her employment.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative disc disease at L4-L5 and L5-S1
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 60%
- Decision date
- February 6, 2004
- Citation
- 0403363
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,987 · Granted: 15% (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 0403363.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for a higher rating for his back disability is denied as the evidence does not show that he meets or approximates the criteria for a rating in excess of 10 percent prior to October 13, 2009 and 40 percent from October 13, 2009 forward.,The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for his right lower extremity radiculopathy is denied as the evidence does not show that he meets or approximates the criteria for a separate compensable rating prior to October 13, 2009.
- Granted
The Board has reopened the Veteran's service connection claim for a low back disability and granted it, finding that new evidence supports the claim. The Veteran is now entitled to service connection for degenerative disc disease at L4-L5 and L5-S1.
- Denied
The veteran's service-connected degenerative disc disease at L4-L5 and L5-S1 is currently rated as 60 percent disabling. A separate 10 percent rating for left lower extremity sciatica has been granted effective September 23, 2002. The Board denied the claim for TDIU due to service-connected disabilities.
- Denied
The veteran's low back disorder, characterized by severe limitation of motion and moderate incomplete paralysis of the sciatic nerve, is currently rated at 60 percent. The Board finds that this rating adequately reflects his disability.
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