The Board remands the claim for a right knee condition to correct pre-decisional duty to assist errors and obtain an adequate medical nexus opinion.
The deciding factor: The November 2020 VA negative linkage opinion is inadequate because it lacks a thorough and well-reasoned explanation for concluding the knee condition was acute when it impermissibly relied on a lack of objective contemporaneous medical evidence and failed to consider the Veteran's statements about experiencing right knee pain since service.
- Claimed conditions
- right knee condition
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 23, 2025
- Citation
- A25054033
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.
- Dismissed
The Veteran's appeals for service connection were dismissed due to untimely filing of the Board Appeal requests.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for right and left knee conditions, denied a rating in excess of 40 percent for right lower extremity sciatic radiculopathy, and denied special monthly compensation based on loss of use of a lower extremity.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for left and right knee conditions as new evidence has been received that is relevant to these claims.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board remands the claims for service connection for back, left wrist, left and right knee, and left and right shoulder conditions due to missing personnel records and an inadequate VA medical opinion.
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