The Board remands the claims for service connection of bilateral shoulder disabilities due to pre-decisional duty-to-assist errors, including an inadequate VA examination and failure to obtain relevant private medical records.
The deciding factor: The August 2023 VA examination was found inadequate as it did not address in-service trauma contributing to current diagnoses. Additionally, the RO failed to obtain identified private treatment records, resulting in a pre-decisional duty-to-assist error.
- Claimed conditions
- chronic right shoulder disability, claimed as right shoulder pain/ROM, chronic left shoulder disability, claimed as left shoulder pain/ROM
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- March 19, 2025
- Citation
- A25025316
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.
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