The Board has remanded the claims for bilateral hallux valgus and left foot hallux rigidus due to insufficient medical opinions regarding service connection.
The deciding factor: The VA examiners did not provide sufficient rationale or opinion on whether the Veteran's conditions are related to his military service, specifically bilateral knee patellofemoral tendonitis and bilateral pes planus with plantar fasciitis.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral hallux valgus, left foot hallux rigidus
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 21, 2020
- Citation
- 20080196
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,432 · Granted: 29% (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 20080196.
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 Veteran's claim for a disability rating in excess of 10 percent for service-connected left foot hallux rigidus was denied. The Board found the evidence did not support a higher rating due to moderate symptoms and no actual loss of use.,The Veteran's claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric condition (anxiety, depression, insomnia) is remanded as there is insufficient medical evidence to determine its etiology.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has determined that the VA examinations are inadequate for rating purposes and thus remands the case to obtain a new examination. The issues include determining whether bilateral hallux valgus and/or acquired pes cavus are secondary to sesamoiditis, whether there is a neurological disability of the right great toe, and whether there was a period of convalescence following the July 2022 sesamoidectomy.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's service-connected disabilities render him unemployable from performing all forms of substantially gainful employment that are consistent with his education and occupational experience, granting entitlement to TDIU.
- Dismissed
The Board has dismissed the Veteran's claim of service connection for left foot hallux rigidus due to non-compliance with claims processing regulations regarding the timeliness of the Notice of Disagreement (NOD).
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