The Board has decided to remand the Veteran's claims for a back condition and right foot condition due to the need for additional medical examinations to address whether these conditions are related to service or secondary to his already service-connected right ankle disability.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner will be asked to determine if there is at least a 50% probability that the Veteran's current back and right foot conditions were incurred in service, caused by service-connected disabilities, or aggravated by service-connected disabilities.
- Claimed conditions
- Back Condition, Right Foot Condition
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 22, 2019
- Citation
- 19113282
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 940 · Granted: 21% (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 19113282.
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 August 1996 rating decision denied service connection for a back condition due to the claim being considered not well-grounded, as there was no current disability and no evidence of in-service injury or disease.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has found a pre-decisional duty-to-assist error in the VA examination for service connection of the back condition and requires an addendum opinion to address whether it is at least as likely as not that the Veteran's back disability began in service or was caused by any incident of service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to a duty-to-assist error in obtaining medical opinions regarding whether the Veteran's right foot condition is caused or aggravated by his service-connected right fourth toe disability.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for bilateral foot conditions, finding that the Veteran experienced symptoms of right and left foot pain during service which have persisted since then.
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