The Board has determined that new and material evidence was received to reopen the claim for service connection for a low back disorder. The Veteran's current diagnosis of degenerative joint disease is related to his in-service injury, but not to the January 1991 injury as he reported. Service connection is granted for arthritis due to its chronic nature since separation from service.
The deciding factor: The Board found that while the Veteran's current low back disorder and arthritis are related to service, they were not caused by his in-service injury of January 1991 but rather by a subsequent injury in 1998 or 1999.
- Claimed conditions
- Low Back Disorder, Arthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 0%
- Decision date
- May 9, 2014
- Citation
- 1420948
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 1420948.
What this means for you
A partial grant means some issues were granted while others were denied or remanded — common in multi-issue claims. Look at which issues went which way, and how each was argued.
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 case due to a duty-to-assist error in previous examinations, requiring additional information on right shoulder ROM measurements without medication effects.
- Remanded (sent back)
The reduction of the disability rating for headaches from 50% to 30% is not proper and is void ab initio. Effective dates are denied for various service connection claims.,Multiple issues related to initial disability ratings, effective dates, and earlier effective dates for higher ratings are remanded.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew his appeals for higher ratings in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected right knee disability and low back disorder. As a result, the cases are dismissed.
- Granted
The Veteran's disability ratings for low back disability and right lower extremity radiculopathy have been reduced from 40% and 10%, respectively, to 20% and 0%. The reduction was based on improvements shown in recent VA examinations.
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