The Board remands the claims for a new VA medical opinion to address the severity of, and functional impairment resulting from, the Veteran's low back and right lower extremity radiculopathy disabilities without considering the ameliorative effects of medication.
The deciding factor: VA failed to ensure that it complied with a pre-decisional duty to assist by seeking to obtain private chiropractic treatment records referenced in the evidence of record at the time of the April 2020 rating decision, and did not address whether medication used by the Veteran provided relief or otherwise improved the symptoms of the Veteran's low back and right lower extremity radiculopathy disabilities.
- Claimed conditions
- lumbosacral strain with intervertebral disc syndrome (claimed as back injury), right lower extremity radiculopathy (sciatic nerve) (also claimed as nerve damage)
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 19, 2025
- Citation
- A25100614
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 837 · Granted: 24% (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 A25100614.
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.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the claim for service connection for lumbosacral strain with intervertebral disc syndrome (claimed as back injury) due to a lack of an adequate rationale in the November 2020 VA medical opinion and a potential duty to assist error.
- 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.
- Denied
The Veteran's service-connected musculoligamentous strain, right knee, is currently rated at 10 percent and the Board finds that a higher rating is not warranted.
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