The Board remands the claims for service connection for right and left foot hammertoes to obtain adequate medical opinions addressing all reasonably raised theories of service connection.
The deciding factor: Remand is required due to an inadequate VA medical opinion that did not address relevant private treatment records and other theories of service connection.
- Claimed conditions
- right foot hammertoes, left foot hammertoes
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- November 21, 2025
- Citation
- A25101354
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 1,820 · Granted: 26% (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 A25101354.
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's tinnitus is found to be the result of noise exposure during active duty training. Service connection for left foot hammertoes and bilateral hearing loss is granted as well.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has found that there may be relevant outstanding treatment records to obtain and associate with the claim file, particularly given the Veteran's citation to 'MEDICAL' in his request for service records. The claims are being remanded to address this duty to assist error.
- Dismissed
The Board dismissed the veteran's appeals for service connection for various conditions, including foot and calf pain, hammertoes, hallux valgus, and cervical spine degenerative arthritis.
- Denied
The Board denied higher ratings for the Veteran's right and left foot hallux valgus and right and left foot hammertoes, as the maximum 10 percent ratings were already assigned.
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