The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims of service connection for a right hand disability and bilateral foot disability due to inadequate opinions in the previous VA examinations. The AOJ is required to obtain new medical opinions addressing the nature and etiology of these disabilities.
The deciding factor: The previous VA examiners did not adequately address all relevant evidence, including STRs that indicated possible improperly healed bones from a laceration injury and foot numbness during service.
- Claimed conditions
- Right Hand Disability, Bilateral Foot Disability
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 9, 2020
- Citation
- 20065866
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,614 · Granted: 35% (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 20065866.
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.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for a higher rating for PTSD and dismissed his appeals regarding increased ratings for tinnitus and a right hand disability due to lack of timely filing of Notice of Disagreement.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that the current evidence is insufficient to establish service connection for the Veteran's claimed disabilities, and thus remands the claims for further development.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims of service connection for a bilateral foot disability and migraine disability, both secondary to existing service-connected disabilities.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for a bilateral foot disability, finding that it is at least as likely as not caused by his service-connected psychiatric disability.
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