The Board has remanded the Veteran's claim for an increased disability rating for chronic lumbar strain due to inadequate examination reports and failure to address flare-ups during the appeal period.
The deciding factor: The Court found that the Board relied on an inadequate VA examination report, which did not adequately assess additional functional loss during flare-ups. The remand is required to obtain a new VA examination or opinion addressing these issues.
- Claimed conditions
- Chronic Lumbar Strain
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 8, 2019
- Citation
- 19101509
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,911 · Granted: 10% (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 19101509.
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.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) as his service-connected disabilities have not rendered him unable to obtain or perform substantially gainful employment.
- Granted
The Veteran's TDIU claim is granted from October 3, 2014, due to his service-connected PTSD, lumbar spine, and right knee disabilities preventing him from obtaining substantially gainful employment.
- Denied
The Veteran's ED is not found to be secondary to his service-connected conditions of chronic lumbar strain and left shoulder biceps tendinitis, and the Board denied service connection for this condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's appeal is remanded due to the need for further evaluation and determination of service connection for kidney stones, which were not addressed in the original decision.
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