The Veteran's right hand and finger disability was reduced from a 20 percent rating to a 10 percent rating, but the reduction is found to be improper due to insufficient evidence of improvement in his condition.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner did not consider possible relationships between the service-connected right hand/fingers disability and the Veteran's nonservice-connected CTS surgery and trigger release. The reduction was therefore improper.
- Claimed conditions
- Fractures of index, middle and ring fingers, right hand, Degenerative joint disease (DJD), Nerve damage
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 20%
- Decision date
- January 17, 2019
- Citation
- 19104288
Veterans Law Judge
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 19104288.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
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- Denied
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