The Veteran's claim for an effective date prior to January 28, 2010 for the award of service connection for depressive disorder is denied due to the lack of a formal or informal claim filed before that date.
The deciding factor: The law does not allow for earlier effective dates based on circumstances at the time of service separation and the Veteran's claims are not supported by evidence of record.
- Claimed conditions
- depressive disorder
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 13, 2019
- Citation
- 19193829
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,500 · Granted: 29% (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 19193829.
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Veteran's vascular headaches are granted effective August 22, 2011. A TDIU is granted effective February 11, 2015. SMC based on housebound criteria is denied prior to July 14, 2020.
- Granted
The Board has restored the Veteran's 100% rating for depressive disorder, effective August 1, 2020, as the reduction was improper and did not comply with applicable regulations.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claim for service connection for acquired psychiatric disability, including unspecified anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, kleptomania, and PTSD is being remanded due to the AOJ's failure to obtain medical records from his periods of incarceration or a medical opinion regarding his diagnoses.
- Granted
The Veteran was granted service connection for migraine headaches effective August 10, 2022.,The Veteran was granted service connection for depressive disorder effective April 11, 2024.
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