The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for a bilateral ankle disability, bilateral leg disability, and bilateral foot disability (diagnosed as trench foot). The issues of entitlement to service connection for these conditions are being remanded due to insufficient evidence.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner found that the Veteran’s current disabilities were not proximately caused or aggravated by his service-connected low back and knee disabilities. For the bilateral leg and ankle disabilities, there was no current disability found. The Veteran's trench foot diagnosis is linked to cold weather injuries during service.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral ankle disability, bilateral leg disability, bilateral foot disability
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 22, 2020
- Citation
- 20080411
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,249 · Granted: 37% (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 20080411.
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 remanded the claims for a neurological examination to determine if any diagnosed radiculopathy or other neurological disability affecting the lower extremities was caused or aggravated by service-connected conditions.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's bilateral foot disability is related to his active military service and grants service connection for this condition.
- Granted
The Board has granted the Veteran's claim for service connection for a bilateral ankle disability as secondary to his service-connected bilateral knee and low back disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims for a new examination to address the Veteran's lay statements regarding her symptoms during service.
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