The Board remands the matters for further development, specifically to obtain addendum opinions that more adequately address the requirements laid out in Sharp v. Shulkin.
The deciding factor: The addendum opinions provided do not comply with the requirements in Sharp v. Shulkin, as they indicate a deficiency in the record without identifying whether such a deficiency could be overcome with further development.
- Claimed conditions
- left ankle strain, left knee condition (status post left knee twist injury with laxity and degenerative arthritis), right knee condition (status post right knee twist injury with laxity and degenerative arthritis), right middle finger condition (status post tuft fracture of the right middle finger)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 2, 2025
- Citation
- 25004481
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, increased ratings, and earlier effective dates as there was no evidence to support a causal relationship between his current conditions and his active military service.
- Partly granted
The Board granted an initial evaluation of 20 percent for left and right ankle strains, denied a compensable evaluation for bilateral hearing loss, and remanded claims for hypertension and gout.
- Denied
The Board denied earlier effective dates for the grant of service connection and initial increased ratings for various conditions, as well as remanded several issues for further development.
- Granted
The Board granted service connection for left shoulder strain, right shoulder strain, early osteoarthritis of the left and right hips (secondary to a service-connected knee disability), and right and left ankle strains (secondary to a service-connected knee disability).
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