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Recent Board Activity: What the Board Decided in July 2026

In July 2026, the newest complete month in the Board of Veterans' Appeals published record, the Board issued 9,429 decisions covering 25,917 issues. Of the issues decided on the merits, 47.6% were granted, 2.7 points above the trailing-12-month average of 44.9%.

9,429decisions in July 2026

47.6%of decided issues granted

31.4%of all issues remanded

+2.7 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 October 19, 2026

Grant and remand rates by condition, July 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	824	55%	21.7%
Hearing loss DC 6100	658	27.8%	22%
Paralysis of sciatic nerve DC 8520	651	53%	30.5%
Lumbosacral or cervical strain DC 5237	584	49.3%	37.4%
Tinnitus, recurrent DC 6260	546	63%	17.4%
Sleep Apnea Syndromes DC 6847	539	58.8%	39.8%
Leg, limitation of flexion of DC 5260	485	49.1%	45.5%
Migraine DC 8100	445	60.9%	32.4%
Hypertensive vascular disease DC 7101	378	41.5%	32.8%
Scars, other; and other effects of scars evaluated under diagnostic codes 7800, 7801, 7802, or 7804 DC 7805	289	36.3%	19.9%
Gastroesophageal reflux disease DC 7206	219	44.3%	38.1%
Major depressive disorder DC 9434	218	56%	20.1%
Intervertebral disc syndrome DC 5243	214	55.1%	27.6%
Degenerative arthritis, other than post-traumatic DC 5003	214	50.9%	36.8%
Unspecified depressive disorder DC 9435	208	53.4%	31.1%
Arm, limitation of motion of DC 5201	207	45.9%	45.4%
Diabetes mellitus DC 7913	193	37.8%	38.9%
Ankle, limited motion of DC 5271	181	42.5%	39.1%
Erectile dysfunction, with or without penile deformity DC 7522	171	45.6%	35.1%
Allergic or vasomotor rhinitis DC 6522	164	37.2%	24.7%

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 July 2026 decisions themselves in BVA Search →

What moved vs June 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	June	July	Change	Decided (new / prior)
Dermatitis or eczema DC 7806	22.5%	36.7%	+14.2 pts	98 / 102
Malignant neoplasms of the genitourinary system DC 7528	53.3%	63.3%	+10 pts	98 / 107
Scars, other; and other effects of scars evaluated under diagnostic codes 7800, 7801, 7802, or 7804 DC 7805	27.5%	36.3%	+8.8 pts	289 / 265
Leg, limitation of flexion of DC 5260	41.2%	49.1%	+7.9 pts	485 / 648
Arm, limitation of motion of DC 5201	38.2%	45.9%	+7.7 pts	207 / 296
Chronic fatigue syndrome DC 6354	28%	12.3%	-15.7 pts	65 / 82
Leg, limitation of extension of DC 5261	37.7%	25.8%	-12 pts	66 / 53
Peripheral vestibular disorders DC 6204	52.3%	40.6%	-11.7 pts	64 / 65
Other specified anxiety disorder DC 9410	56.2%	46.5%	-9.7 pts	157 / 121
Wrist, limitation of motion of DC 5215	34.6%	25.4%	-9.2 pts	59 / 78

Highest-volume judges, July 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
John R. Doolittle, II	339	29.1%	104
Harvey P. Roberts	327	24.9%	98
GAYLE STROMMEN	315	45.3%	90
KRISTY L. ZADORA	313	32.3%	81
Jonathan Hager	312	69.6%	22
E. I. VELEZ	300	64.4%	127
MARJORIE A. AUER	296	59.9%	131
Paul Sorisio	292	74.4%	93
B. D. WATSON	290	46.1%	77
DELYVONNE M. WHITEHEAD	287	53.8%	149

Why July 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 (10,119 decisions median; July 2026 = 9,569). The last eight months of the record:

November 20258,586

December 20259,578

January 20269,037

February 20269,114

March 202611,006

April 202611,652

June 202610,119

July 2026 , this report9,569

Methodology

Issue-level aggregates over published Board of Veterans' Appeals decisions decided in July 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. (October 19, 2026). Recent Board Activity: Outcomes of 25,917 Board of Veterans' Appeals Issues Decided in July 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.