The Veteran's claims for increased ratings for his low back disability and right lower extremity radiculopathy are being remanded due to the addition of new VA treatment records. These records need to be reviewed by the AOJ before further decisions can be made.
The deciding factor: New VA treatment records have been added to the case file, necessitating their review by the AOJ before deciding on the increased ratings for the Veteran's low back disability and right lower extremity radiculopathy.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative disc disease, L5-S1, Radiculopathy of the right sciatic nerve
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 20, 2019
- Citation
- 19187514
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 882 · Granted: 17% (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 19187514.
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 claim for a higher initial rating for his right lower extremity radiculopathy of the sciatic nerve is granted, with an effective date of June 1, 2018.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for increased ratings and TDIU due to pre-decisional duty to assist errors.
- Granted
The Board granted a 40 percent increased disability evaluation for the Veteran's service-connected radiculopathy of both sciatic nerves and a 50 percent increased disability evaluation for his lumbosacral strain with degenerative disc disease, facet arthrosis L3-L4 through L5-S1, and neural foraminal stenosis, effective May 27, 2019.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date prior to June 9, 2020, for a 20% rating for his back condition was denied.,Claims for initial ratings in excess of 10 percent for radiculopathy of the left and right sciatic nerves prior to September 10, 2020, were also denied.,The Veteran's claim for increased ratings for radiculopathy of the left and right sciatic nerves beginning on September 10, 2020, was granted with a 20% rating.
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