The Board remands the claims for service connection for low back disability and bilateral lower extremity sciatica to correct duty to assist errors that occurred prior to the December 2021 decision on appeal.
The deciding factor: Remand is necessary due to missing evidence and failure to obtain private treatment records, as well as a need for a medical opinion regarding the relationship between the appellant's claimed conditions and his active duty training injury.
- Claimed conditions
- Bilateral lower extremity sciatica, Low back disability, to include L5-S1 disc degeneration and L4-L5 central canal stenosis
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- May 19, 2025
- Citation
- A25044786
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,902 · Granted: 11% (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 A25044786.
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.
- Granted
The Veteran was granted an initial rating of 40 percent for left shoulder strain and service connection for lumbosacral strain and bilateral lower extremity sciatica, secondary to the now service-connected lumbosacral strain.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for a low back disorder and bilateral lower extremity sciatica, finding that the evidence did not support direct service connection due to lack of in-service incurrence or continuity of symptomatology since service.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the Veteran's claims for service connection for a back disability and bilateral lower extremity sciatica, as well as his claim for TDIU due to inadequate VA examinations. The issues are being remanded for further development.
- Granted
The Veteran's sinusitis and allergic rhinitis were granted service connection as they are related to her active duty service.,Service connection for bilateral lower extremity sciatica was granted as it is secondary to the Veteran's service-connected lumbar spine disability.
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