The Board remands the claims for service connection for various conditions, including psychiatric disorders, sleep impairment disorder, hearing loss, tinnitus, back pain, left hip pain, and right knee pain, due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error.
The deciding factor: Remand is necessary to correct pre-decisional duty to assist errors, such as the failure to obtain all service treatment records and schedule VA examinations for certain conditions.
- Claimed conditions
- Psychiatric disorder, to include anxiety and depression, Sleep impairment disorder (claimed as insomnia), Bilateral hearing loss, Tinnitus, Back pain, Left hip pain, Right knee pain
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- April 7, 2025
- Citation
- A25031564
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 705 · Granted: 38% (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 A25031564.
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 service connection for bilateral hearing loss and tinnitus, finding that the Veteran's current conditions are not related to his military service.
- Granted
The Veteran's claim for a low back disorder was reopened, and his claims for increased ratings of bilateral knee instability were granted. His hearing loss claim was denied.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for a higher rating for PTSD and dismissed his appeals regarding increased ratings for tinnitus and a right hand disability due to lack of timely filing of Notice of Disagreement.
- Denied
The Board has denied the Veteran's claims for service connection for various conditions, including GAD, MDD, bruxism, migraines/headaches, tinnitus, hip pain, iliotibial band syndrome, and leg stress fractures. The evidence does not support current diagnoses of these conditions during the appeal period.
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