The Veteran's claim for an effective date earlier than October 28, 2015 for the establishment of service connection for sciatic radiculopathy of both lower extremities was denied. The effective rating remains at 10%.
The deciding factor: It was not factually ascertainable prior to October 28, 2015 that the Veteran had sciatic radiculopathy of either lower extremity, to include as due to a service-connected disability of the lumbar spine.
- Claimed conditions
- sciatic radiculopathy
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 10%
- Decision date
- January 7, 2020
- Citation
- 20001126
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,757 · Granted: 23% (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 20001126.
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.
- Dismissed
The Board dismissed the Veteran's appeal because the January 2025 rating decision did not address the current ratings assigned for sciatic radiculopathy of the right and left lower extremities, as he had a valid pending Higher-Level Review request regarding these issues.
- Granted
The Veteran's RLE radiculopathy was granted a 40 percent disability rating, effective from May 9, 2016.,The Veteran's LLE radiculopathy was granted a 20 percent disability rating, effective from May 9, 2016.
- Granted
The Veteran's LLE and RLE sciatic radiculopathy, as well as her RLE femoral radiculopathy have been granted initial 20 percent ratings since March 15, 2022.
- Granted
The Veteran's right and left lower extremity sciatic radiculopathy were granted a rating of 40 percent each, effective March 28, 2013.
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