The Veteran is granted a separate 10 percent rating for right lower extremity radiculopathy from May 25, 2007. The issue of service connection for headaches secondary to low back disorder was reasonably raised by the record and referred to the AOJ.
The deciding factor: Right lower extremity radiculopathy is found to be at least as likely as not related to the Veteran's service-connected degenerative joint disease of the lumbosacral spine, warranting a separate rating from May 25, 2007.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative Joint Disease of the Lumbosacral Spine, Radiculopathy of the Right Lower Extremity
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 10%
- Decision date
- October 21, 2019
- Citation
- 19179718
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 19179718.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Denied
The Board found that the evidence did not show an actual improvement in the Veteran's conditions, and thus denied the reduction requests for his service-connected disabilities.
- Granted
The Veteran's low back disability is granted service connection.,Service connection for radiculopathy of the left and right lower extremities are also granted.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for degenerative disc disease with spinal stenosis, radiculopathy of the left lower extremity, and radiculopathy of the right lower extremity.
- Partly granted
The Board denied increased ratings for the Veteran's back disability, radiculopathy of both lower extremities, limitation of pronation and flexion of the right elbow, and scarring, but granted a 40 percent rating from March 26, 2024 to September 17, 2024.
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