The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection of a cervical spine disability, finding that there was no evidence linking his current condition to an in-service injury and that any degenerative changes were first noted many years after the alleged incident.
The deciding factor: The VA examiners found insufficient medical evidence to link the Veteran's current cervical spine disability to his alleged in-service fall in 1983, noting a lack of complaints or treatment for neck pain until approximately 16 years later.
- Claimed conditions
- Cervical spine degenerative arthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 16, 2020
- Citation
- 20073334
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 882 · Granted: 17% (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 20073334.
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.
- Denied
The Board has denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for a fungal infection of the feet, cervical spine degenerative arthritis, and psychiatric condition due to lack of evidence showing these conditions were incurred or aggravated by service.
- Granted
The Veteran's right upper extremity radiculopathy is granted a 40 percent rating, and the left upper extremity radiculopathy is granted a 30 percent rating. The cervical spine degenerative arthritis does not meet the criteria for a higher than 20 percent rating.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's claims for increased ratings and service connection have been denied. The cervical spine disability is rated as 20 percent prior to May 31, 2024 and 30 percent on and after that date.,PTSD is rated at 50 percent.
- Denied
The Veteran's neck disability, rated at 30 percent, is denied a higher rating as there is no evidence of unfavorable ankylosis or other disabling conditions that would warrant a higher rating.
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