The Veteran's claim to reopen his service connection for bilateral ankle arthralgias is granted. The Board finds that new and material evidence has been received, but additional development is needed as the claim will be remanded for an examination.
The deciding factor: New and material evidence was found in the form of lay statements and medical records indicating a possible link to service, but further evaluation is required due to the speculative nature of the connection.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral ankle arthralgias
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 17, 2019
- Citation
- 19130025
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,960 · Granted: 36% (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 19130025.
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 Board finds that the Veteran's current bilateral ankle and knee disabilities are not related to service, including any in-service injury. The preponderance of evidence does not support a finding of service connection for these conditions.
- Granted
The veteran's bilateral ankle arthralgias are related to an incident or injury in service, and the Board has granted service connection for this condition.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial evaluation in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected coronary artery disease, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating based on the severity of his condition.
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