The Board has remanded the case due to inadequate examination and opinion regarding the Veteran's lumbar spine conditions, which were previously remanded for further development.
The deciding factor: The examiner did not address the Veteran’s reports of ongoing pain or reconcile the negative nexus opinion with his competent report of back pain after an in-service injury.
- Claimed conditions
- lumbar spine conditions
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 18, 2020
- Citation
- 20073964
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,893 · Granted: 31% (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 20073964.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for lumbar spine, cervical spine, and thyroid conditions to correct pre-decisional duty to assist errors.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that the issue of TDIU was reasonably raised by the record and is now considered on its merits. The Veteran's service-connected lumbar spine conditions have led to a combined disability rating of 70 percent, but no single condition meets the schedular criteria for TDIU. A referral to the Director of Compensation Service is warranted for consideration of an extraschedular TDIU.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has decided to remand the case due to insufficient evidence regarding whether the Veteran's lumbar spine conditions are related to service. The case will be sent back for a new VA examination and opinion.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for service connection for a left elbow condition is denied.,The effective date of the award of service connection for bilateral knee DJD is set at February 17, 2011.,The Veteran's claims for higher disability evaluations for right and left knee DJD are denied.,The Veteran is granted entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) from November 3, 2011.
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