Vazquez-Claudio v. Shinseki (criteria for establishing service connection for mental condition)

      Vazquez-Claudio v. Shinseki, docket no. 2012-7114 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 8, 2013) 

A veteran with a claim for service connection for a mental condition may only qualify for a disability rating under 38 C.F.R. § 4.130 (the regulation regarding disability ratings for mental conditions) “by demonstrating the particular symptoms associated with that percentage or others of similar severity, frequency, and duration” and by showing that those symptoms result in occupational and social impairment in a number of areas listed in the regulation, “such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood.” A claimant cannot satisfy a particular rating by only showing that he/she has occupational and social impairment in most of the listed areas.