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Recent Board Activity: What the Board Decided in April 2026

In April 2026, the newest complete month in the Board of Veterans' Appeals published record, the Board issued 11,520 decisions covering 30,701 issues. Of the issues decided on the merits, 48% were granted, 4.2 points above the trailing-12-month average of 43.8%.

11,520decisions in April 2026

48%of decided issues granted

31.6%of all issues remanded

+4.2 ptsvs 12-month average

How this research is built: every Board of Veterans' Appeals decision published by VA is public. RateMyVSO downloads and analyzes the complete record weekly, and this page always reports the newest complete month, decisions publish two to three months behind the decision date, and a month only becomes the report month once its volume reaches the corpus's normal monthly level. Modern-era (AMA) appeals only.

Updated August 10, 2026

Grant and remand rates by condition, April 2026

The 20 most-decided conditions that month. Grant rate is granted of decided issues (granted plus denied); the remand column is remands as a share of all issues for that condition, remanded issues are sent back for more development, not decided:

Condition	Decided	Grant rate	Remand share
Posttraumatic stress disorder DC 9411	1,016	55.8%	21.1%
Lumbosacral or cervical strain DC 5237	907	54.6%	41.4%
Paralysis of sciatic nerve DC 8520	829	52.2%	29.1%
Hearing loss DC 6100	786	29.4%	23%
Knee, other impairment of DC 5257	741	48.6%	39.6%
Tinnitus, recurrent DC 6260	712	65.2%	14.5%
Sleep Apnea Syndromes DC 6847	710	61.4%	38.8%
Migraine DC 8100	510	59.4%	35.9%
Bursitis DC 5019	447	39.6%	47.3%
Hypertensive vascular disease DC 7101	411	37.5%	37.3%
Scars, other; and other effects of scars evaluated under diagnostic codes 7800, 7801, 7802, or 7804 DC 7805	396	31.8%	20.5%
Other specified anxiety disorder DC 9410	339	55.5%	34.8%
Ankle, limited motion of DC 5271	318	42.5%	36.2%
Degenerative arthritis, other than post-traumatic DC 5003	314	59.6%	35.1%
Unspecified depressive disorder DC 9435	267	53.6%	29.3%
Tenosynovitis, tendinitis, tendinosis or tendinopathy DC 5024	258	35.3%	34.7%
Diabetes mellitus DC 7913	244	48.4%	38.7%
Major depressive disorder DC 9434	231	60.6%	20.6%
Gastroesophageal reflux disease DC 7206	229	44.1%	36.8%
Intervertebral disc syndrome DC 5243	193	60.6%	32.6%

Reading this: these describe one month of published Board decisions. A single month is a snapshot, condition-level rates move around, and none of this predicts any individual claim.

Read the April 2026 decisions themselves in BVA Search →

What moved vs March 2026

The biggest month-over-month grant-rate shifts among conditions with at least 50 decided issues in both months. Small samples swing, single-month movement is weather, not climate, so read these as "what changed lately," never as a trend by themselves:

Condition	March	April	Change	Decided (new / prior)
Paralysis of median nerve DC 8515	40.6%	51.1%	+10.5 pts	178 / 155
Paralysis of sciatic nerve DC 8520	43%	52.2%	+9.2 pts	829 / 309
Degenerative arthritis, other than post-traumatic DC 5003	50.9%	59.6%	+8.6 pts	314 / 532
Intervertebral disc syndrome DC 5243	54.3%	60.6%	+6.3 pts	193 / 838
Degenerative arthritis, degenerative disc disease other than intervertebral disc syndrome DC 5242	52.4%	58.2%	+5.8 pts	67 / 84
Tenosynovitis, tendinitis, tendinosis or tendinopathy DC 5024	46%	35.3%	-10.7 pts	258 / 100
Hypertensive vascular disease DC 7101	45.7%	37.5%	-8.2 pts	411 / 418
Malignant neoplasms of the genitourinary system DC 7528	58.4%	51.6%	-6.8 pts	122 / 154
Dermatitis or eczema DC 7806	40.8%	34.1%	-6.7 pts	88 / 103
Major depressive disorder DC 9434	67%	60.6%	-6.4 pts	231 / 197

Highest-volume judges, April 2026

The Veterans Law Judges who signed the most issue decisions in the month, with their grant rate of decided issues and remand count. Factual reporting on public officials' published opinions; see per-judge analytics for career-long numbers:

Judge	Issues	Grant rate	Remanded
Melanie J. Mann	379	51.8%	113
Jonathan Hager	371	79.9%	33
Harvey P. Roberts	364	28.6%	114
Cynthia M. Bruce	359	56%	123
Michael J. Skaltsounis	353	76.6%	110
J. PARKER	345	46.1%	37
A. ISHIZAWAR	343	32%	121
Ardie A. Bland	342	42.5%	121
B. D. WATSON	340	45.1%	94
H.M. WALKER	335	48%	109

Why April 2026 and not the current calendar month

VA publishes Board decisions on a delay, and a month can appear in the record partially before it finishes filling in. This report flips to a newer month only when that month's published volume reaches the corpus's normal monthly level (9,609 decisions median; April 2026 = 11,732). The last eight months of the record:

September 202512,295

October 202511,820

November 20258,606

December 20259,609

January 20269,070

February 20269,161

March 202611,046

April 2026 , this report11,732

Methodology

Issue-level aggregates over published Board of Veterans' Appeals decisions decided in April 2026, modern-era (AMA) appeals only. Grant rate is granted divided by granted-plus-denied; remands and dismissals are excluded from the rate. The condition table requires at least 50 decided issues per condition; the movers table requires 50 in both months compared. Baseline is the twelve months of the record preceding the report month. Figures refresh every Monday as new decisions publish; the report month advances automatically when a newer month's record is complete.

Cite this research

RateMyVSO. (August 10, 2026). Recent Board Activity: Outcomes of 30,701 Board of Veterans' Appeals Issues Decided in April 2026. https://ratemyvso.net/dc/recent-board-activity

Free to cite and link with attribution. Figures derived from published Board of Veterans' Appeals decisions.

Educational and encyclopedic only, not legal advice, and not a prediction of any individual claim. Figures describe patterns in published Board decisions. For help with a claim, find a VA-accredited representative.