SSDI ALJ hearings

Hi BadHeart, sorry you received another denial but its just part of the process. The hearings are informal, no suit & tie needed to attend, pair of pants and shirt, I suggest no blue jeans unless that is all you have. You don't want to go in looking like you are rolling in the dough but you also do not want to look like a street person. They do swear you in which is no big deal either.

The judge will ask questions about work history, your education and your illness, what you can and cannot do, Don't worry you will do fine and your atty will meet with you prior to the hearing to refresh your memory.

Yes, unfortunately, it can take that long to get a hearing because of the backlog and they do hear the oldest cases first. Your atty has no control on getting your hearing set any sooner. In my state every now & then they will bring in some visiting judges to help out with the back log, but, it really does not make much difference. There are just thousand and thousands of hearings to be set and only so many can be set in 8 hours.

Take care and keep your atty advised of all medical visits to your drs.

BadHeart I had my hearing many years ago, at a hotel, it was in a confrence room. I remember them reviewing all my records even all the military training that I had had. And everything else, and the guy from SS said if nothing else, I should be able to work as a used car salesman! Seriously! The judge asked me to walk around the room, I did I am bent over and use a cain, and then the judge asked the guy if he would buy a car from me looking like that? and then the judge said he sure wouldn't!! Everyone chuckled and then he said he wanted me to see their doctor and have one more test done and then he would make his judgement. It took six more months before I got my approval letter and it was backed dated over two years, so I also got my medicare A and B at the same time. I had to give all the money I got for the back pay to my long term insurance company. As I had been receiving benefits from them all that time. Infact they pay more than my SSD so I still get a small monthly check from them. The main thing is, to be honest and sincere at the hearing, and your lawyer should have you prepared for it.

Good Luck to YOU

White Beard

SSDI is one strange bird,, some people who need it endup dead before they get it and down the street someone with a hangnail gets it first time,, I was very fortunate,, I was approved first time, I was over 50, had documentated autoimmune diseases, and I contacted my state senators and congressmen, I had them look into my case, you might want to consider that, it never hurts ot have people asking about your case who have power to do something,

I know in Tx they do have Vocational experts that sits in on the hearings and the judge will ask the VE if the claimant is capable of working with their disability. I think they should not be allowed because I have seen the VE too many times say a person can work when they could not even with their job description in the judge's hand. We had a nurse that had been an RN all of her working years. She had all sorts of restrictions that were permanent from lifting to standing on her feet so many hours a day. The VE said this lady could work as a lab technician and the state would pay for her retraining in this field. My boss asked for a two week extension and had the client go to the hospital where she had worked and get a written job description of what the work entailed and after the judge read the job description of a lab tech he awarded her benefits. I just think the VE are jaded in their opinions.

I have seen a few cases be denied by the judges and was surprised by his decision on most of them. The cases can be heard in Federal court but finding an atty willing to go to Federal court can be tough. Federal court is totally different from civil. On our members here was denied benefits at his hearing because he had a lot of work experience and the judge thought he could work at something he already knew how to do. He had to reapply and won on the 2nd time around.

No one should ever pay an atty up front to take their SSD claim. They should sign up with someone that will take the case on a contingency fee basis only. SSD has a fee guideline schedule the atty has to abide by and SSD tells the lawyer how much money he will be paid for handling the case. If the person gets their benefits SSD will send a letter to everone involved saying how much money they will withhold from the back pay for atty fees. If you do not sign a contingency fee contract the atty can charge whatever he wants and SSD has no control over the atty fee agreement. A lot of folks apparently does not know this. Paying someone up front is not going to make him work any harder on your case either.

Only people that control getting cases set for a hearing are the people that work at the SS office. Their dockets are so backed up due to the over load of cases that need hearings and they can only hold so many hearings a day and only have a hand full of judges. Sometimes they will bring in visiting judges to try and get more cases moved. Its not a perfect system by a long shot but its the only one we have at the moment.