The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for bilateral shoulder and hand disorders due to insufficient medical opinions and incomplete records.
The deciding factor: The VA examination provided by the examiner did not address Dr. R.J.S.'s opinion or repetitive use of his upper extremities, which is a critical factor in determining whether the Veteran's current conditions are related to military service.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral shoulder disorders, bilateral hand disorders
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 12, 2019
- Citation
- A19002665
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,242 · Granted: 27% (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 A19002665.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for lumbar spine, bilateral hip, and bilateral hand disorders to obtain adequate medical opinions.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for lumbosacral strain, but remanded the claims for headaches, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus type II, lung disorder, erectile dysfunction, bilateral shoulder disorders, bilateral knee disorders, and bilateral ankle disorders.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remanded the veteran's claims for service connection of bilateral knee disorders, bilateral shoulder disorders, and a cervical spine disorder. The Board found that the VA examinations were inadequate and ordered new examinations.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for lumbar spine, shoulder, elbow, and knee disorders due to a lack of VA examinations and conflicting opinions.
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