The Board has determined that additional development is necessary to properly adjudicate the Veteran's claims for service connection of lumbar spine and cervical spine disorders. The case will be returned to the AOJ for further development.
The deciding factor: The medical opinions provided are unclear, and a remand is needed to obtain an additional VA medical opinion regarding the nature and etiology of the Veteran’s lumbar spine disorder.
- Claimed conditions
- lumbar spine spondylolysis, lumbar spine stenosis L2-3, L3-4, lumbar spondylolisthesis L4-5
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 15, 2020
- Citation
- 20067002
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,612 · Granted: 16% (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 20067002.
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 Board has dismissed the appeal as the April 2020 proposed reduction of ratings for service-connected conditions was not an adjudicative determination and thus no question of law or fact is presented.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for a lumbar spine spondylolysis, finding that the Veteran's current condition is likely due to disease or injury incurred in active service.
- Denied
The Board has determined that new and material evidence was not submitted to reopen the claims of entitlement to service connection for lumbar spine spondylolysis and bilateral hearing loss. The claim for tinnitus is remanded.
- Granted
The Veteran's low back disorder has increased in severity, and he is now entitled to a 40 percent evaluation for lumbar spine spondylolysis.
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