The Board denied the veteran's requests for increased ratings for his right (dominant) shoulder strain and cervical spine strain, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating based on limitation of motion or other functional impairment.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner found no objective evidence of painful motion, weakness, fatigue, lack of endurance, instability, or any disability related to dislocation, malunion, fibrous union, nonunion, or bony abnormality in the right shoulder. For the cervical spine, there was no clinical evidence of sprain, strain, or rupture of the rotator cuff, and the examiner believed that symptoms were primarily due to neurological impairment.
- Claimed conditions
- Cervical spine strain, Right (dominant) shoulder strain
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 25, 2006
- Citation
- 0633079
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,582 · Granted: 32% (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 0633079.
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.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for cervical spine strain, right wrist sprain, right knee strain, left knee strain, and right ankle strain. The disabilities are all deemed to have begun during the Veteran's active duty.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claim of service connection for a neck disorder, as it is insufficiently addressed in the previous decision. The case will be sent back for an addendum opinion.
- Denied
The Veteran's cervical spine disability and right upper extremity radiculopathy were denied increased evaluations. The TDIU claim was also denied prior to August 20, 2013.
- Granted
The Board has granted a 20 percent rating for the Veteran's cervical spine strain from October 24, 2011. The effective date is set at that time.
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