The Veteran's claims for increased ratings and TDIU are being remanded due to the need for additional examinations and development of records.
The deciding factor: The current VA examination does not comply with legal requirements, necessitating a new examination to assess the severity of the left ankle disability.
- Claimed conditions
- left ankle sprain status post open reduction internal fixation surgery, painful scars, left ankle sprain status post open reduction internal fixation surgery, left ankle scars
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- January 9, 2023
- Citation
- 23001297
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 713 · 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 23001297.
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.
- Dismissed
The Board dismissed the appeal as it did not receive any arguments or evidence from the Veteran and his attorney within the allotted time.
- Dismissed
The Veteran requested to withdraw his appeal for a compensable disability rating for left ankle scars, and the Board has dismissed the appeal.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Veteran's left ankle scars are currently assigned a noncompensable evaluation, and the appeal for an initial compensable evaluation is denied.,The effective dates for service connection of right knee disorder and left ankle scar, low back disorder, and right lower extremity radiculopathy are all denied as they cannot be earlier than May 12, 2014.
- Granted
The Veteran is granted a total disability rating based upon individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities prior to August 28, 2023, and basic eligibility for Dependents' Educational Assistance benefits.
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