DISABILITY HEARINGS - WHY AN ADVOCATE IS WORTH HIS WEIGHT IN GOLD

A disability advocate can help you win a Social Security disability claim.  What does he/she know that you may not know?  Plenty.  Here are a few examples, just as they routinely come up during Social Security hearings:

1. What was the exertional level of your past relevant work, according to the DOT (the Dictionary of Occupational Titles).
2.  Does your Residual Functional Capacity prevent you from performing any of your past relevant work?
3. What was the skill level of your past jobs?
4. Did you learn any skills transferable to other types of work?
5. Do you have any non-exertional limitations that limit the work you can perform?
6. If your main medical evidence is from a nurse practitioner or a chiropractor, is it admissible and what weight may it be given under Social Security law?
7. Social Security sent you for a "consultative examination" with one of their doctors who says that you have no severe impairments; must you accept this opinion?
8. Your treating doctors says you have impairments that are more severe than Social Security's doctor has found.  Which doctor's opinion must be given more weight-- your doctor's opinion or the Social Security doctor's opinion?
9.  You have a history of alcohol (or drug) abuse and Social Security law says that abuse may not be used as the basis for disability.  Can you be denied benefits because of drug or alcohol abuse?  What is the legal test?
10. The judge concludes that you can perform most, but not all, of the basic job functions required of sedentary unskilled work.  Is that good enough to find that you are able to work, or must you be able to perform all of the job functions of sedentary work? 
11. Is your "occupational base" significantly eroded due to your inability to get along with coworkers, supervisors and the public?  Does 20 CFR 404.1521(b)(5) support you?
12. The consulting physician states that you would be unable to walk one block at a reasonable pace over rough or uneven surfaces.  Is this sufficient to show that you do not ambulate effectively under Appendix I, Section 1.00?

A qualified disability representative or advocate knows the answers to those questions before walking into the courtroom.  And he/she will know how to argue the appropriate points before the judge who will make a decision on your case.  The representative will also be skilled at cross examination of the vocational expert.  In fact, well before the hearing occurs, your representative will have prepared a detailed legal brief in which the pertinent legal arguments have been stated, laws cited, and conclusions drawn. 

Under no circumstances should a claimant wander into a disability hearing unrepresented.  It is usually the death knell of the claim.  Good representation is not expensive.  It is priceless!  And remember, you don't even pay a fee unless you win back pay!