The Veteran's increased disability ratings for his instability and limitation of motion in his left and right knees are being remanded due to the lack of compliance with recent court rulings on assessing functional loss.
The deciding factor: The VA examinations did not comply with the requirements set forth by Sharp v. Shulkin, Correia v. McDonald, and Deluca v. Brown for assessing functional loss due to flare-ups and repetitive motion testing results in increased instability.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative joint disease of the right knee, Right knee instability, Degenerative joint disease of the left knee, Left knee instability
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 26, 2019
- Citation
- 19121834
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,500 · 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 19121834.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran's right and left knee braces caused wear and tear to his clothing in the year of 2021, leading to a decision granting annual clothing allowances for both knee braces.
- Granted
The Veteran's right knee disability, including limitation of extension and flexion, instability, and meniscus condition, is now rated at 20 percent effective March 7, 2020.
- Granted
The Veteran's right knee disability, including limitation of extension and flexion, instability, and meniscus condition, is now rated at 20 percent effective March 7, 2020.
- Granted
The Board has granted effective dates of June 17, 2010 for service connection and separate ratings for right knee instability and left knee instability.
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