The Board granted a rating of 20 percent for right shoulder scars, based on the Veteran's reports of pain and resolving reasonable doubt in his favor.
The deciding factor: The evidence was in relative equipoise regarding the presence of painful scars, leading to a grant under the benefit of the doubt rule.
- Claimed conditions
- right shoulder scars
- How they argued it
- Direct service connection
- Exposure basis
- None
- Rating assigned
- 20%
- Decision date
- January 31, 2025
- Citation
- A25009305
Veterans Law Judge
Decisions by this judge: 117 · Granted: 38% (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 A25009305.
What this means for you
A grant means the Board agreed the veteran was entitled to the benefit. Decisions like this show the kind of evidence and arguments that tend to succeed for claims like it.
What you can do next
Related decisions
Other Board decisions on a similar condition or argued the same way.
- Partly granted
The Board granted service connection for a right knee disability and denied service connection for right shoulder scars. The claims for peripheral neuropathy of the left thumb, a right ankle disorder, and a left ankle disorder were remanded.
- Denied
The Board denied the veteran's claims for increased ratings and remanded several service connection claims.
- Partly granted
The Board denied a compensable rating for the veteran's right small finger fracture and right optic neuropathy, but granted an effective date of August 20, 2021, for a 20 percent disability rating for painful right shoulder scars.
- Dismissed
The Board dismissed the claims for increased ratings and denied a compensable rating for right shoulder scars, while remanding several other issues including service connection for a right hand disorder.
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