The Board has denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his lumbar spine and right hand disabilities due to failure without good cause to report for necessary VA examinations.
The deciding factor: The veteran failed to report for scheduled VA examinations, which were needed to assess the current severity of his service-connected disabilities and determine whether they precluded employment.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine, Right hand injury with neuropathy of the ring and little fingers
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating
- Not verified here — check the original decision
- Decision date
- July 31, 2006
- Citation
- 0622774
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,582 · Granted: 32% (granted or partly granted, in the indexed decisions on this site)
Outcome labels are AI-extracted from each decision; spot checks have found mislabels, so treat percentages as approximate.
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 0622774.
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: Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claim for an increased rating of his low back disability is being remanded due to the reduction in evaluation from 40 percent to 20 percent effective May 31, 2014. The RO needs to provide updated VA treatment records and schedule a VA examination to determine the current severity of the disability.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Board denied extraschedular ratings for the Veteran's service-connected lumbar spine and lower extremity radiculopathy disabilities, as well as a total disability rating based on individual unemployability prior to February 3, 2011.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Veteran's cervical strain with spinal fusion is rated at 20 percent, and the Board denied an increased rating.,The Veteran's degenerative joint disease of the lumbar spine is rated at 20 percent, and the Board denied an increased rating.
- Whole decision: Denied
The Veteran's claims for increased disability ratings were denied as he failed to report for scheduled VA examinations without good cause, and the evidence did not show an increase in severity of his service-connected conditions.
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