The Board remands the claims for service connection for various disabilities to correct the pre-decisional duty to assist error and to obtain an adequate VA examination and medical opinion.
The deciding factor: Remand is necessary due to the absence of a proper VA examination that adequately considers the Veteran's reports and assigns them appropriate probative weight, as well as the need to ensure compliance with the duty to assist.
- Claimed conditions
- scar above the right eye, right shoulder disability (claimed as a bilateral shoulder disability), left shoulder disability (claimed as a bilateral shoulder disability), lumbar spine disability, to include back spasms, right knee disability (previously claimed as bilateral knee disabilities), left ankle disability (also claimed as residual(s) of a left ankle injury)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- June 26, 2025
- Citation
- A25055469
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 575 · Granted: 29% (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 A25055469.
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 Veteran's claims for service connection for residuals of a traumatic brain injury, radiculopathy of the right lower extremity, skin disorder, and scar above the right eye were denied. The Board found that there was no objective evidence of right lower extremity radiculopathy or left lower extremity radiculopathy in the Veteran's records.
- Denied
The Board denied service connection for a scar above the right eye as there was no competent medical evidence supporting its existence.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings for his service-connected lumbar myositis, psychoneurosis and conversion hysteria, residuals of shrapnel wounds of the left thigh and pelvis with retained foreign bodies and scars, and residuals of shell fragment wounds of the right thigh and left leg. The veteran was also denied entitlement to a total disability rating based on individual unemployability due to service-connected disabilities.
- Denied
The Board denied the Veteran's claim for an initial evaluation in excess of 10 percent for his service-connected coronary artery disease, finding that the evidence did not support a higher rating based on the severity of his condition.
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