I was honored to present a workshop at last week's NOSSCR conference in Philadelphia. We had a good turnout. My topic was writing effective hearing briefs for the ALJ. Thank you to all who attended!

I have published my written presentation materials. Just click here: Writing Effective Hearing Briefs for the ALJ.

One of the questions after my presentation was: Should you call it a brief or a memorandum? Here is my answer:

I have used those terms interchangeably in the past. Social Security labels it a Representative Brief in the disability claim file. Calling it a memorandum reflects that it should be concise and fairly short. However, now that it is addressed to no one in particular (since we do not know the identity of the judge in advance of the hearing), I am going to start calling it a statement of the case, which is what the Portland, Maine ODAR calls it.