The Board has restored the original 20% disability rating for traumatic arthritis of the lumbar spine and granted an earlier effective date for the TDIU.
The deciding factor: The reduction in disability rating was found to be improper due to lack of sustained improvement, leading to its restoration. The TDIU claim is granted with an effective date from January 24, 2001.
- Claimed conditions
- Traumatic arthritis of the lumbar spine
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 20%
- Decision date
- August 14, 2006
- Citation
- 0624944
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 609 · Granted: 22% (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 0624944.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
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 an earlier effective date for PTSD is denied, and their lumbar spine disability remains at a 40 percent rating. The appeal to reopen the depressive disorder claim is dismissed.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal is remanded for further development and readjudication due to the need for additional VA examinations, as well as consideration of extraschedular TDIU.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for earlier effective dates and increased disability ratings are being remanded due to the need for additional medical examination. The TDIU claim is also inextricably intertwined with other issues.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the issue of a rating in excess of 10 percent for bilateral hearing loss from January 31, 2012, to June 14, 2018. The Veteran's service-connected disabilities prevent him from securing or following substantially gainful employment effective February 14, 2007.
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