The veteran's claim for a disability rating in excess of 30 percent for degenerative disc disease, lumbar spine, from March 7, 2002 to January 8, 2004 was denied. The claim for a disability rating in excess of 40 percent for the same condition from June 1, 2005 is also denied.
The deciding factor: The evidence did not meet the criteria for a higher disability rating during the relevant periods.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative disc disease, lumbar spine
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 30%
- Decision date
- November 8, 2006
- Citation
- 0634541
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,156 · Granted: 29% (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 0634541.
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 Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claim of service connection for degenerative disc disease, lumbar spine (claimed as back injury) due to inadequate VA examination and failure to comply with prior remand directives.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeal for a higher rating for degenerative disc disease, lumbar spine was dismissed due to concurrent election of review options.
- Granted
The Veteran's service connection claims for degenerative disc disease, lumbar spine, with muscle spasms; right elbow pain; and bilateral lower extremity radiculopathy/ sciatica as secondary to the back disability have all been granted.
- Denied
The Board denied an earlier effective date for the grant of TDIU due to lack of factual support and found that the Veteran's unemployability was not a result of his service-connected conditions during the one-year look-back period.
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