The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for lumbar and cervical spine disabilities due to incomplete development of records, including missing service treatment records. The Veteran is presumed to have been in sound condition upon entry into active duty service, but must provide clear and unmistakable evidence that his pre-existing conditions were not aggravated during service.
The deciding factor: The Board found the need for additional development as there are no service treatment records available to determine if the Veteran's lumbar and cervical spine disabilities existed prior to service or were aggravated by service.
- Claimed conditions
- lumbar spine disability, cervical spine disability
- How they argued it
- Aggravation of a pre-existing condition
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 12, 2020
- Citation
- 20072923
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,549 · Granted: 26% (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 20072923.
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 claims of service connection for cervical spine and skin rash disabilities, finding that there is no evidence linking these conditions to active military service.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for a lumbar spine disability, left lower extremity radiculopathy, and right lower extremity radiculopathy as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected lumbar spine disability.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the claims for miscarriage, cervical spine disability, lumbar spine disability, and right elbow disability due to insufficient examination opinions and incomplete service history verification.
- Dismissed
The Board has dismissed the Veteran's claims for service connection for left knee disability, right knee disability, lumbar spine disability, and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) as these issues have been addressed in a separate docket.
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