The Board has decided to remand the case due to a duty-to-assist error in the initial decision, requiring further development and an addendum medical opinion.
The deciding factor: The VA examiner's opinion was inadequate as it did not consider the Veteran's lay statements regarding his chronic low back pain and self-treatment following service discharge.
- Claimed conditions
- chronic lumbar pain, lumbar disc herniation
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- October 31, 2024
- Citation
- A24070919
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 2,036 · Granted: 27% (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 A24070919.
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 Veteran's lumbosacral strain disability was rated at 10 percent prior to February 3, 2025. The rating was increased to 20 percent effective February 3, 2025.
- Granted
The Board has determined that the Veteran's lumbar disc herniation with status-post discectomy L5-S1 is related to his active duty service and grants service connection for this condition.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claims of service connection for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) and chronic lumbar pain as secondary to the Veteran's service-connected disabilities. The VA is required to obtain medical opinions regarding whether BPPV is due to or aggravated by tinnitus, any individual toxic exposure risk activity, or his right ankle disability.
- Granted
The Board has granted service connection for the Veteran's low back disability, finding that the evidence is at least in approximate balance as to whether his current condition is related to an injury sustained during active duty.
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