The Board remands the claim for an increased rating of the left ankle strain to afford the Veteran a new VA examination without considering the ameliorative effects of medication.
The deciding factor: Remand is necessary due to pre-decisional duty to assist error and to correct an AOJ error in satisfying a regulatory or statutory duty regarding notice of the right to a hearing.
- Claimed conditions
- left ankle strain
- How they argued it
- Reopened with new and material evidence
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 14, 2025
- Citation
- A25024031
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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