The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for the grant of service connection for cognitive disorder, secondary to his service-connected chronic active hepatitis with cirrhosis of the liver (with a history of Wilson’s Disease), is denied. The effective date cannot be earlier than March 8, 2012, as it was the earliest date upon which a request to reopen the claim was filed.
The deciding factor: The effective date for a reopened claim can only be no earlier than the date the request to reopen the claim was filed, and there is no provision in either the statute or regulations that allows for an earlier effective date based on a reopened claim unless a clear and unmistakable error was committed in a prior decision or new and material evidence resulted from receipt of additional relevant military records.
- Claimed conditions
- Cognitive disorder, Psychotic disorder
- How they argued it
- Secondary to another service-connected condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 16, 2018
- Citation
- 18102918
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 18102918.
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
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- Remanded (sent back)
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