The Board has denied the Veteran's claims of service connection for right knee, left knee, right thumb, left thumb, and cervical spine conditions due to a lack of evidence showing these disabilities began during active service or are otherwise related to an in-service injury or disease.
The deciding factor: The preponderance of the evidence is against finding that the Veteran's right knee, left knee, right thumb, left thumb, and cervical spine disabilities began during active service or are otherwise related to an in-service injury or disease.
- Claimed conditions
- right knee, left knee, right thumb, left thumb, cervical spine
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 18, 2020
- Citation
- 20073906
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,592 · Granted: 19% (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 20073906.
What this means for you
A denial is a starting point, not the end of the road. You can see why this claim fell short — and, if you are still inside the one-year window, the appeal lanes that may remain open to you.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that the Veteran's claims for service connection regarding his left knee, right knee condition, and coronary artery disease require further examination and medical opinion due to a lack of a VA examination in connection with these claims.
- Granted
The Veteran's left ankle disability is granted service connection, and he receives a 10% rating for his right and left knee disabilities based on limitation of motion. Separate 20% ratings are assigned for instability in both knees.
- Dismissed
The appeal for neck pain pinched nerve severe arthritis cervical spine is dismissed as a matter of law. Service connection and increased ratings are granted for major depression, mental disorder anxiety and PTSD, carpal tunnel syndrome (both wrists), and migraine including migraine variants.
- Dismissed
The Veteran requested to withdraw her appeal regarding the earlier effective date for service connection for rheumatoid arthritis affecting various fingers and wrists. The Board dismissed the appeals as per the Veteran's request.
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