The appeal is remanded to the RO for further development and readjudication of the service connection claims for a neck disorder, a back disorder, and cervicogenic headaches.
The deciding factor: The Board erred in failing to return the VA examination as inadequate for rating purposes and did not properly consider lay evidence regarding the veteran's reported in-service injuries. A new medical examination is required.
- Claimed conditions
- residuals of a neck injury, residuals of a back injury, cervicogenic/muscle contraction headaches
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 24, 2009
- Citation
- 0906834
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,456 · Granted: 23% (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 0906834.
What this means for you
A remand is not a loss. The Board sent the case back for more development — often a new exam or missing records — before making a final decision. Many remands later end in a grant, and the decision spells out exactly what the Board wanted to see.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for residuals of a neck injury, finding that his current disability and in-service injury are related.
- Granted
The Veteran's claims for service connection for bilateral elbow disorder, bilateral hearing loss, and residuals of a neck injury have been granted. The claim for sleep apnea has been withdrawn.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for residuals of a back injury, head injury, and neck injury as the evidence did not support that these injuries occurred during or while traveling from active duty.
- Denied
The Board denied an initial rating in excess of 20 percent for residuals of a back injury and an effective date earlier than May 26, 2023, for the award of service connection for residuals of a back injury.
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