The Board remands the claim for service connection for bilateral mixed hearing loss due to a pre-decisional duty to assist error.
The deciding factor: The VA failed to provide an adequate medical opinion regarding the etiology of the Veteran's hearing loss in relation to his conceded toxic exposures during service.
- Claimed conditions
- bilateral mixed hearing loss
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- None in this decision
- Decision date
- December 10, 2025
- Citation
- A25106848
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 828 · Granted: 42% (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 A25106848.
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 Veteran's claims for additional development and evaluation, including a TDIU rating due to service-connected disabilities.
- Remanded (sent back)
The Board has remanded the case due to insufficient evidence regarding whether the Veteran's vertigo is secondary to his service-connected hearing loss and tinnitus. The examiner needs to provide a more detailed opinion on this issue.
- Dismissed
The Veteran withdrew his claim for a disability rating in excess of 40 percent for bilateral mixed hearing loss at the March 2018 Board hearing.
- Partly granted
The Veteran's appeal was withdrawn regarding the reopening of his claim for service connection for left ear otitis media. The Board found that bilateral mixed hearing loss and sensorineural hearing loss were not incurred or aggravated in service, as there is no evidence of such conditions within one year post-service discharge.
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