The Board remands the claims for earlier effective dates for radiculopathy of the femoral and sciatic nerves due to a duty to assist error by the AOJ.
The deciding factor: The AOJ failed to obtain a medical opinion on when the Veteran's radiculopathies likely incepted, which is necessary to assign an appropriate effective date.
- Claimed conditions
- Radiculopathy of the femoral nerve, Radiculopathy of the sciatic nerve
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- February 28, 2025
- Citation
- A25018666
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,429 · Granted: 29% (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 A25018666.
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 initial ratings for RLE and LLE radiculopathy of the sciatic nerve were reduced from 40% to 20%, but these reductions are void ab initio. The Veteran's initial ratings for RLE and LLE radiculopathy of the femoral nerves remain at 20%. Initial higher ratings for both conditions are denied.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew his appeals for restoration of a 60 percent rating for DDD of the lumbar spine and increased ratings for bilateral lower radiculopathy of the femoral and sciatic nerves.
- Granted
The Veteran's radiculopathy of the right sciatic nerve was granted a 20% disability rating effective June 20, 2022. The Veteran's anterior crural (femoral) nerve paralysis and right lower ilio-inguinal nerve paralysis were denied increased ratings.
- 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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