38 U.S.C. § 1111
Section 1111 · Presumption of sound condition
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 86 court decisions — leading case Butts v. Brown (1993)
Most recently applied in Amezquita v. Collins (May 2025)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
For the purposes of section 1110 of this title, every veteran shall be taken to have been in sound condition when examined, accepted, and enrolled for service, except as to defects, infirmities, or disorders noted at the time of the examination, acceptance, and enrollment, or where clear and unmistakable evidence demonstrates that the injury or disease existed before acceptance and enrollment and was not aggravated by such service.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1991—Pub. L. 102–83, §5(a), renumbered section 311 of this title as this section.
Pub. L. 102–83, §5(c)(1), substituted “1110” for “310”.