The Veteran's claim for service connection for left ankle traumatic arthritis is being remanded due to a duty-to-assist error in the prior VA examination. The examiner must provide an opinion regarding whether the increase in severity of the Veteran's left ankle disability was due to natural progression and address his report about marching impact.
The deciding factor: The Board found that there was a duty-to-assist error in the prior VA examination, which did not adequately consider the Veteran's reports about the impact of marching on his ankle condition.
- Claimed conditions
- left ankle traumatic arthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 6, 2024
- Citation
- A24072570
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 275 · Granted: 33% (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 A24072570.
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 need for regular aid and attendance is not due to his service-connected disabilities, but rather to nonservice-connected disabilities. The Board denies the claim for SMC based on the need for regular aid and attendance.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for major depressive disorder, with anxious distress, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, left ankle traumatic arthritis, right ankle traumatic arthritis, left knee chondromalacia, right knee chondromalacia, and left foot pes cavus, resolving reasonable doubt in the Veteran's favor.
- Granted
The veteran's claim for service connection of left hip strain as secondary to left ankle traumatic arthritis was granted.
- Dismissed
The Board has dismissed the appeals as they were not processed under the modernized review system (AMA). The Veteran's claims for increased ratings of his left and right ankle conditions are still pending in the legacy appeal system.
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