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Granted

The Board has granted the Veteran's petition to reopen his claim for service connection for lumbar discogenic degeneration and denied the claim itself. The Board found that there was no evidence of a back condition during service, did not manifest within one year post-service, and is not related to a service-connected disability.

The deciding factor: The VA examiner's opinion against a nexus between the Veteran’s back disability and service or his service-connected disabilities outweighed the Veteran's lay statements.

Claimed conditions
lumbar discogenic degeneration
How they argued it
Direct service connection
Exposure basis
None
Rating assigned
None in this decision
Decision date
January 24, 2020
Citation
20005871

Veterans Law Judge

Michael A. Pappas

Decisions by this judge: 1,858 · Granted: 24% (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 20005871.

What this means for you

A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.

What you can do next

Related decisions

Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.

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