WHG secured a remand from the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in a case involving entitlement to service connection for generalized anxiety with panic attacks. The Court vacated the Board of Veterans’ Appeals’ November 1, 2022, decision, following our argument that the Board failed to provide an adequate statement of reasons or bases for its denial.
Under 38 U.S.C. § 7104(d)(1), the Board must provide a clear and comprehensive explanation of its decision, addressing all relevant evidence and legal provisions. In this case, the Board did not adequately discuss whether the appellant’s psychiatric condition was aggravated by her service-connected fibromyalgia. The record included multiple references to the connection between her anxiety and fibromyalgia, as noted in medical reports from 2016, 2018, and 2022. WHG was successful in convincing VA’s lawyers of this error, obviating the need to brief this for a decision by a judge. This saved the client the additional several months of delay the briefing process would add.
The Court remanded the case, instructing the Board to consider whether the appellant’s psychiatric condition is secondarily connected to her fibromyalgia. This ruling ensures a proper review of the evidence and requires the Board to fully address all theories of entitlement.
This victory highlights the importance of a thorough review of all evidence, particularly in cases involving complex medical conditions and secondary service connections.
