The Board has granted service connection for various knee, shoulder, cervical spine, and lumbar spine disorders. The Veteran's depressive disorder is also found to be related to his service-connected conditions.
The deciding factor: The weight of evidence shows that the Veteran’s diagnosed depressive disorder was caused by his now-service-connected degenerative arthritis of the knees, shoulders, cervical spine, and lumbar spine, radiculopathy associated with the lumbar spine arthritis, and left knee meniscus tear.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative arthritis of the left knee, Degenerative arthritis of the right knee, Degenerative arthritis of the left shoulder, Degenerative arthritis of the right shoulder, Degenerative arthritis of the cervical spine, Degenerative arthritis of the lumbar spine with radiculopathy, Depressive disorder due to medical conditions
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 12, 2019
- Citation
- 19184975
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,272 · Granted: 31% (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 19184975.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for increased ratings for degenerative arthritis of the cervical spine and lumbar spine was granted with effective dates of May 13, 2019.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for increased ratings for degenerative arthritis of the lumbar and cervical spine are being remanded due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error. The AOJ is directed to obtain an addendum medical opinion that addresses the extent of flareups experienced by the Veteran.
- Remanded (sent back)
Service connection for degenerative arthritis of the cervical spine and anxiety is granted. The Veteran's right lower extremity radiculopathy, right knee condition, and OSA are remanded due to duty-to-assist errors.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeal for reducing his disability ratings for cervical spine conditions has been withdrawn by the Veteran's representative.
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