The Board has determined that the veteran does not have any current skin rash, bilateral ear disorder (to include hearing loss), bilateral foot disorder, low back disorder, or bilateral shoulder and hand disorders. The claims are denied.
The deciding factor: There is no evidence of a current disability for any of the claimed conditions, and service connection cannot be established as they were not shown in service.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral Ear Disorder, Bilateral Foot Disorder, Bilateral Hand Disorder, Bilateral Shoulder Disorder, Low Back Disorder, Skin Rash (claimed as secondary to herbicide exposure)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 1, 2004
- Citation
- 0408471
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,699 · Granted: 17% (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 0408471.
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The reduction of the disability rating for headaches from 50% to 30% is not proper and is void ab initio. Effective dates are denied for various service connection claims.,Multiple issues related to initial disability ratings, effective dates, and earlier effective dates for higher ratings are remanded.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew his appeals for higher ratings in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected right knee disability and low back disorder. As a result, the cases are dismissed.
- Denied
The Board has denied service connection for right shoulder disorder, low back disorder, and bilateral knee disorders as these conditions are not shown to be related to military service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claims for service connection for right hip and low back disorders due to potential errors in duty to assist. Additional medical opinions are needed to address causation.
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