The Veteran's claim for an increased rating for sciatica, right lower extremity is denied. The claim for service connection for a neck disability with headaches has been reopened but not yet decided on the merits. The TDIU claim is remanded.
The deciding factor: The evidence does not meet the criteria for higher ratings under any applicable diagnostic codes.
- Claimed conditions
- Sciatica, right lower extremity, Neck disability with headaches
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 12, 2020
- Citation
- 20072778
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,451 · Granted: 22% (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 20072778.
What this means for you
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What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for degenerative arthritis of the spine with vertebral fracture, sciatica in both lower extremities, and left leg length discrepancy, but denied it for right leg length discrepancy.
- Granted
The Veteran's service connection claims for degenerative disc disease cervical spine, degenerative disc disease thoracolumbar spine, sciatica (right and left lower extremities), and herniated cervical disc have all been granted. The conditions are found to be related to service.
- Granted
The Veteran's sciatica, right lower extremity is now rated at 40 percent effective July 7, 2021. The low back strain with degenerative disc disease remains rated at 40 percent. The rating for sciatica prior to December 2, 2019 was denied.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for increased ratings for cervical spine strain, sciatica of the left lower extremity, and sciatica of the right lower extremity are being remanded due to the need for additional examinations that comply with VA examination guidelines.
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