The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection due to inadequate opinions provided by VA examiners. The issues include PTSD, right hand/finger disability, left knee and right knee disabilities, back disability, and neuropathy of the upper and lower extremities.
The deciding factor: The VA examiners' opinions were found to be inadequate as they did not address all claimed conditions or provide a rationale for their conclusions based on the Veteran's lay reports and medical records.
- Claimed conditions
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Acquired psychiatric disorder, Right hand/finger disability, Left knee disability, Right knee disability, Back disability, Neuropathy, left upper extremity, Neuropathy, right upper extremity, Neuropathy, left lower extremity, Neuropathy, right lower extremity
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 29, 2020
- Citation
- 20081487
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,863 · Granted: 26% (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 20081487.
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.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for a low back disability and an increased rating for his acquired psychiatric disorder. The Board found that there was no evidence linking the current disabilities to military service.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for service connection of a back disability, finding that there was no evidence to support a nexus between his current condition and active duty service.
- Denied
The Veteran's claim for an effective date prior to December 27, 2019 for the grant of service connection for PTSD was denied as there is no earlier claim document in the claims file and the Veteran did not timely perfect an appeal.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case for a determination on whether injuries sustained in a November 2001 incident were in the line of duty. The claim for service connection for an acquired psychiatric disorder is also remanded due to its interdependence with the line of duty issue.
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