The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date for the grant of service connection for hypertension is denied. The claims for separate ratings for right and left lower extremity radiculopathy prior to November 9, 2012 are also denied. An initial 30 percent rating, but not higher, for adjustment disorder with depressed mood is granted.
The deciding factor: The effective date for the grant of service connection for hypertension was set at February 5, 2014 due to lack of prior claim. The separate ratings for radiculopathy were denied as they occurred more than one year before November 9, 2012. The adjustment disorder with depressed mood is rated at 30 percent.
- Claimed conditions
- Hypertension, Lumbar Spine Disability (herniated nucleus pulposus, L5-S1, with intervertebral disc syndrome, status post laminectomy), Right Lower Extremity Radiculopathy, Left Lower Extremity Radiculopathy
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 30%
- Decision date
- January 22, 2019
- Citation
- 19104909
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,421 · Granted: 29% (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 19104909.
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
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board denied the claim of service connection for hypertension, finding that it did not manifest during service and is not causally related to the Veteran's exposure to herbicides or service.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection for hypertension, finding that there was no evidence of a nexus between his current condition and active duty service or herbicide exposure.
- Denied
The Board has denied service connection for hypertension and has remanded the issue of an increased rating for skin condition.
- Granted
The Board has restored the Veteran's 10% rating for hypertension effective December 1, 2025 and denied a rating in excess of 10%. The reduction from 10% to noncompensable was not proper.
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