The Board has remanded the case to consider entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability for the period prior to December 21, 2015 due to service-connected orthopedic disabilities.
The deciding factor: The medical opinion indicated that the Veteran would be able to perform sedentary work for the period prior to December 2015, but the case was not referred to the Director, Compensation Service as directed.
- Claimed conditions
- orthopedic disabilities
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 8, 2020
- Citation
- 20001640
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,987 · Granted: 15% (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 20001640.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran's SMC P-2 award is restored effective January 31, 2020. The rating decision proposing a reduction in his SMC was found to have made CUE and thus the restoration of his SMC P-2 award is granted.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) due to his failure to provide updated employment information, specifically by submitting a VA Form 21-8940. The evidence showed that he had service-connected disabilities but did not meet the criteria for TDIU as defined in the regulations.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to inadequate opinions regarding secondary service connection for OSA. The Veteran's obesity is linked to his service-connected disabilities, but further clarification on whether these conditions caused or aggravated his obesity is needed.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to inadequate VA examinations and opinions, specifically regarding whether the Veteran's service-connected orthopedic disabilities and/or MDD are related to his weight gain and obesity, which may be an intermediate step in causing or contributing to his sleep apnea.
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