The Board remands the evaluation of depressive disorder due to chronic pain for the AOJ to associate updated VA treatment records with the claims file.
The deciding factor: The failure to obtain recent VA treatment records constitutes a pre-decisional duty to assist error.
- Claimed conditions
- depressive disorder due to chronic pain
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 5, 2025
- Citation
- A25010816
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,963 · Granted: 32% (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 A25010816.
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.
- Partly granted
The veteran is granted a 50% rating for depressive disorder due to chronic pain from August 19, 2020, to January 5, 2022. The request for a higher rating after January 6, 2022, is denied.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew their appeals seeking earlier effective dates for service connection and a rating increase, as well as compensable ratings for certain conditions. The Board dismissed these appeals.
- Granted
The Veteran's service-connected disabilities, including depressive disorder due to chronic pain and multiple knee conditions, have rendered him unable to secure or follow substantially gainful employment. The Board has granted a total disability rating based on individual unemployability.
- 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.
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