The Board has remanded the claims for service connection for a neck disability, including as secondary to the service-connected back disability, and for a temporary total evaluation based on December 2016 neck surgery. The claims are being remanded due to an inadequate June 2017 VA opinion that did not address aggravation.
The deciding factor: The Board found the June 2017 VA opinion insufficient as it did not consider whether the Veteran's current neck disability is aggravated by his service-connected back disability, and thus remanded for a new opinion.
- Claimed conditions
- cervical spondylosis
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 21, 2020
- Citation
- 20004650
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,084 · Granted: 20% (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 20004650.
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.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for various conditions and ratings have been dismissed due to the Veteran withdrawing from appellate consideration in December 2025.
- Dismissed
The appeal has been dismissed due to the Veteran's death while the appeal was pending.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for the Veteran's right and left knee patellofemoral disease with chondromalacia, cervical spondylosis, intervertebral disc syndrome, and spinal stenosis, finding that these conditions were incurred during service.
- Dismissed
The Veteran has withdrawn all his appeals, including those for hypertension, headaches, heart disease with atrial fibrillation, cervical spondylosis, depression, sleep apnea, hyperlipidemia, rotator cuff tear, acromioclavicular arthritis of the right shoulder, dominant, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
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