The Board has remanded the veteran's claims for additional development due to concerns with the VA examiner’s medical opinions regarding his service connection claims. The appellant was provided VA examinations in April 2017, which resulted in diagnoses of patellofemoral pain syndrome of the bilateral knees, degenerative arthritis of the thoracolumbar spine and degenerative arthritis the cervical spine.
The deciding factor: The Board's main concerns are with the examiner’s references to the Board's decisions from April 2015 and July 2014, as these decisions have been vacated by the Court. The examiner relied on these decisions for any purpose is problematic.
- Claimed conditions
- neck disorder, low back disorder, bilateral leg disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 7, 2019
- Citation
- 19177334
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,812 · Granted: 30% (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 19177334.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for a VA examination and medical opinion to determine if the Veteran's low back disorder and bilateral hip disorder are related to his service-connected Crohn's disease.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims of service connection for low back disorder, skin disorder, tongue condition, right chest costochondritis, and right hand shaking due to lack of evidence linking these conditions to his military service.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for the cause of the Veteran's death, finding that side effects from prescribed medications contributed substantially and materially to his accidental motorcycle collision resulting in fatal injuries.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew his appeal before the Board could make a decision on his service connection claims.
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