The Board remands the issues of entitlement to an increased rating for service-connected lumbar and shoulder disabilities due to errors in previous determinations regarding the duty to assist and the consideration of private treatment records.
The deciding factor: Remand is required as the Board erred in not considering VA's Adjudication Procedures Manual (M21-1) and obtaining relevant private medical records, which are necessary for a proper evaluation of the Veteran's disabilities.
- Claimed conditions
- Degenerative changes of the lumbar spine status post multilevel lumbar laminectomy and discectomy (lumbar disability), Right shoulder degenerative arthritis status post supraspinatus tendon repair, osteotomy distal clavicle (shoulder disability)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 13, 2025
- Citation
- 25006478
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 931 · Granted: 42% (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 25006478.
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
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