The Veteran's appeal is remanded for further examination and evaluation of his ankle disabilities, as well as service connection for bilateral knee disability. The current severity of the ankle conditions will be evaluated, and a new VA medical opinion will be obtained to address whether the knee disabilities are related to service.
The deciding factor: Further evidence is needed to determine the current severity of the Veteran's ankle disabilities and to assess whether his knee disabilities are secondary to his service-connected ankle disabilities or otherwise related to service.
- Claimed conditions
- Left ankle disability, Right ankle disability
- How they argued it
- Not specified
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 12, 2019
- Citation
- 19193607
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,902 · Granted: 11% (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 19193607.
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.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for an earlier effective date of January 10, 1997, for a 10% disability rating for his right ankle disability is denied as there was no CUE in the previous decisions.
- Granted
The Board has granted the appellant's claim for service connection for left ankle disability residuals, finding that his current condition is due to an in-service injury and granting the benefit of the doubt.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient evidence regarding whether the Veteran's right ankle disability is related to his service. The VA examiner must provide an opinion on this matter.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's claims for service connection have been dismissed due to their death.
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