The Board denied service connection for a left shoulder condition, finding that the current conditions are not related to service and concluding that there is no evidence of a nexus between the in-service complaints and the present disabilities.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner concluded that the Veteran's current left shoulder conditions were less likely than not incurred or caused by his military service due to lack of medical evidence linking the condition to service, despite documented pain during service.
- Claimed conditions
- Left Shoulder Arthralgia, Left Shoulder Rotator Cuff Tear
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 3, 2020
- Citation
- 20000429
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,828 · Granted: 32% (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 20000429.
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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 an earlier effective date for service connection of his left shoulder rotator cuff tear is granted, with the effective date set at January 17, 2020.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that there are duty to assist errors and the case is remanded for further development, including obtaining STRs from the Veteran's Reserve units and medical records from his private providers.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that there was a duty to assist error and remanded the claims for further development. The Veteran's service connection claims for right and left shoulder rotator cuff tears are being returned to the AOJ for additional consideration.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's PTSD symptoms were found to have approximated total occupational and social impairment from June 15, 2020. The Board granted an earlier effective date of June 15, 2020 for a one hundred percent rating of PTSD. The claim of service connection for left shoulder disability is remanded due to the need for additional evidence.
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