The appeal is remanded to address the Veteran's arguments concerning compliance with hearing officer duties and to obtain additional evidence related to muscle impairment associated with his right shoulder disability.
The deciding factor: The Board finds that the VLJ complied with the hearing officer duties set forth under 38 C.F.R. § 3.103(c)(2) during the August 2021 Board hearing, but remand is necessary to obtain a VA examination and opinion to determine whether there is muscle impairment associated with the Veteran's right shoulder disability that would warrant entitlement to a separate rating.
- Claimed conditions
- right shoulder impingement with rotator cuff and bicipital tendonitis along with glenohumeral and acromioclavicular osteoarthritis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- July 9, 2025
- Citation
- 25008973
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,861 · 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 25008973.
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 appeal for an initial rating in excess of 20 percent, prior to March 28, 2022, and in excess of 30 percent thereafter, for right shoulder impingement with rotator cuff and bicipital tendonitis along with glenohumeral and acromioclavicular osteoarthritis.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial evaluation in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected coronary artery disease, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating based on the severity of his condition.
- Denied
The Veteran's service-connected musculoligamentous strain, right knee, is currently rated at 10 percent and the Board finds that a higher rating is not warranted.
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