The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient opinions regarding the Veteran's right hand disability and its relationship to service-connected conditions. The examiner is requested to provide an opinion on whether the Veteran’s right hand disability began during active service, or is related to an incident of service, as well as whether it was proximately due to or the result of his service-connected left ankle arthritis, lumbosacral degenerative disease, right hip arthroplasty, left foot pes planus and right lower extremity radiculopathy.
The deciding factor: The Board found that the examiner's opinions were inadequate as they did not address the Veteran’s concerns regarding his sleeping position due to his service-connected disabilities and used the term 'permanent' which is not applicable in a secondary service connection claim.
- Claimed conditions
- right hand disability evidenced by numbness and tingling along the ulnar nerve distribution (also claimed as right hand ring finger and fifth finger numbness and tingling)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 2, 2020
- Citation
- 20000177
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,170 · Granted: 38% (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 20000177.
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
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