The Board previously denied service connection for a bilateral ankle disability. The Court has vacated this decision and the case is now remanded to obtain an opinion from a VA examiner regarding whether the Veteran's ankle disabilities are related to his military service.
The deciding factor: The decision was based on insufficient evidence, specifically the September 2014 examination of the Veteran’s ankles which did not address the Veteran's contentions about how his ankle disabilities were caused or aggravated by his right foot disability.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral ankle disability
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 18, 2019
- Citation
- 19104726
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,036 · 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 19104726.
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 has remanded the claims for a neurological examination to determine if any diagnosed radiculopathy or other neurological disability affecting the lower extremities was caused or aggravated by service-connected conditions.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for a bilateral ankle disability as secondary to his service-connected bilateral knee and low back disabilities.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew his appeal regarding the service connection for migraines, a left shoulder disability, a right elbow disability, a left wrist disability, and a bilateral ankle disability.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for bilateral plantar fasciitis, a bilateral ankle disability, and thyroid nodules with multinodular goiter as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected intervertebral disc syndrome with degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine.
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