The Board has remanded the cases due to inadequate opinions regarding the etiology of the Veteran's left and right index finger injuries. The VA must obtain additional evidence and provide another opinion.
The deciding factor: The initial opinions were based solely on the lack of documentation in the Veteran’s case file without considering his statements about symptom continuity, which is a critical factor for determining service connection.
- Claimed conditions
- left index finger injury, right index finger injury
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 13, 2019
- Citation
- 19146165
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,092 · Granted: 42% (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 19146165.
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 emergency treatment at UCMC on October 16, 2020, is covered by VA as it met the criteria for emergent care and there was no feasibly available VA facility to provide continued treatment.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings and service connection, as well as a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) and special monthly compensation (SMC), due to insufficient evidence of current disabilities related to service or functional impairment.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for increased ratings for various hand injuries due to issues with the competency of a VA examiner and the need for an addendum opinion regarding functional equivalent of ankylosis.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to non-compliance with previous remand directives and additional issues need to be addressed, including a retrospective opinion regarding flare-ups of the left index finger disability.
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