The Veteran's claim for service connection of degenerative arthritis of the left knee was initially filed on February 18, 2011. The effective date is set at April 26, 2016, as this is when the VA awarded service connection based on a new Intent to File submitted by the Veteran.
The deciding factor: The previous rating decisions were not final due to continuous submissions of claims to reopen prior to the expiration of the appeal period. The effective date was set at the original filing date of February 18, 2011.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative arthritis of the left knee
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 0%
- Decision date
- October 7, 2020
- Citation
- A20015271
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,164 · Granted: 31% (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 A20015271.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for increased ratings for degenerative arthritis of the left shoulder, left knee, and right knee due to inadequate VA examinations in August 2020 and January 2021.
- Denied
The Board denied higher ratings for the Veteran's knee and cervical spine disabilities, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating under applicable criteria.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for degenerative arthritis of the right and left knees, but remanded the issue of a low back disability for further development.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for further development and clarification regarding the severity of the Veteran's left knee and right knee disabilities, specifically to determine if the Veteran has experienced 'the functional equivalent of range of motion loss contemplated by the next higher rating' at any point during the appeal period.
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