With June well behind us, we are halfway through the calendar year and three-quarters through the Fiscal Year for Social Security, which ends September 30th. It is a good time for a look around, to see where we are with Social Security disability claims in the current political and economic climate.
I started the year…
In the New England states, we are fortunate to receive 75-day notice of disability hearings. This is a carry-over of the DSI process which was implemented in SSA Region I. We also must submit evidence 5 business days ahead of the hearing. See 20 C.F.R. 405.331. In the rest of the country, you only receive 20 days notice of administrative law judge hearing, but you can bring new evidence to the hearing, and it must be considered by the ALJ.
Ideally, all your evidence is submitted well ahead of the hearing. This is one of the best practices of Social Security claimants' representatives. Nevertheless, sometimes there is an important piece of evidence, usually a medical record or a treating doctor's opinion, that could not be obtained earlier.
The regulation specifies 5 business days. Weekends and holidays are not counted. And when counting the 5 days, our judges at the Portland, Maine ODAR do not count the day of the hearing. As a result, the 5-day rule is really an 8-day rule. For a hearing that is held on a Thursday, your evidence must be received by Wednesday of the previous week. This is a trap for the unwary.
Continue Reading In New England, the 5-day rule is really an 8-day rule
There is a helpful article in the April Social Security Forum, which is a newsletter for NOSSCR members. On page 11, Illinois attorney Eric Schnaufer suggests having three reasons to rule out past relevant work at step four, and three reasons to rule out other work at step five of the sequential evaluation.…
I wrote recently about statements in support of a disability claim. Statements from those who are familiar with your situation (and particularly with your functional limitations) can be helpful evidence in support of your claim for Social Security disability benefits. Typically, these written statements are from a spouse, a relative, or a close…
Many Social Security disability claims are not approved until a hearing is held before an administrative law judge (ALJ).
The preparation in advance of the hearing represents most of the work done by a Social Security disability lawyer, and that preparation will usually determine the outcome of the claim.
Preparation for an ALJ hearing is…
Social Security’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) recently completed an audit to determine “what factors may account for any variance in decisional allowance rates and productivity” among administrative law judges (ALJs).
The report is usually referenced as the report on the “outlier ALJs,” and it is really worth a read. Two things stood out…
Photo: Bridget having a snack
Today is February 29th, a date that only occurs every four years. So I wanted to reflect briefly on the past four years of my life and practice.
A lot can change in four years.
Most of my clients were able to work productively four years ago. It is …
I had a remand hearing last week, and the principal issues were the level of the claimant's chronic pain and the objective medical support for her pain complaints and resultant functional limitations.
Since this was the second time around with the same judge, I wanted to ensure that I had all the bases covered. So …
When you receive a written decision from a Social Security administrative law judge (ALJ), in almost all cases the decision is drafted by hearing office staff using the Findings Integrated Template (FIT). The template allows the person drafting the decision to input information regarding the claim and the judge’s determination, and the template spits out a completed written decision, which is then reviewed and signed by the judge. The result is a written decision that is mostly boilerplate language.
The FIT template has bothered me for a long time, because parts of the actual written decision produced by the template are simply untrue. The decision states that the judge considered numerous specific issues, and it is highly unlikely that the ALJ actually made all of the findings that are described in the boilerplate language contained in the decision. Often there is little or no relationship between the language of the written decision and the actual facts of a particular claim. If you look at 10 (or 20, or 100) written decisions, you will see the exact same language over and over again. It is disturbing.
Disability claimants who receive an unfavorable ALJ decision are often surprised by the language in the decision, which typically questions the claimant’s credibility. However, it is all part of the boilerplate language contained in the template.
Social Security ALJs are tasked with deciding 500-700 claims per year. That is a huge workload, and the Findings Integrated Template helps to get that many decisions out the door. But at what price? In my view, a disability claimant who is denied benefits (for which he or she has paid a mandatory premium through FICA taxes withheld from wages) deserves better. Continue Reading Social Security’s Findings Integrated Template
I got one of those sad calls this week from a person who attended her administrative law judge (ALJ) hearing unrepresented. A friend of hers told her that she did not need a lawyer, and she took that advice.
Her expectation, completely unrealistic, was that she would go to the hearing, tell the judge…
