By Diana Wade
Disability Advocate
When the Judge Asks: 'How far can You Walk?'
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One question the judge is likely to ask you at your SSD hearing is “How far can you walk?” Your first inclination might be to give a simple straightforward answer like: “Two blocks.” But an answer like this doesn’t paint much of a picture of your walking ability and limitations.
Pretend the Judge Is a Friend
If you were talking to a friend about your ability to walk, you would probably describe where you have walked to recently, how you felt when you got there, whether you had to stop and rest along the way, and so forth. Talk to the judge the same way that you would talk to a friend.
For example, you might say: “Judge, I can’t walk more than about two blocks without stopping to rest. Just yesterday, I went to the pharmacy, which is only about a block and a half from my house. By the time I got there, I felt like my back was being stabbed with a flaming sword. All I bought at the pharmacy were my pain pills and a bottle of vitamins. I could barely carry them home, I was limping so badly. I had to stop three times on the way because of the pain. As soon as I got home, I took my pain medication, sat down in my recliner chair, and put my legs up.”
As you can see, the person who talks to the judge as an old friend provides a lot of important information, some good examples, and some relevant details.
Volunteer Information
If you have testified in court before or have watched law shows on television, you know that representatives are always advising people, “don’t volunteer.” What they mean, of course, is don’t give any examples or details, wait for the representative to ask. In Social Security hearings, this rule does not apply and if you don’t “volunteer” information, you will not be giving the judge the necessary information to decide your case.
Vocational Expert Testimony
The administrative law judge could ask a vocational expert (VE) to testify at your hearing. Some administrative law judges ask a vocational expert to testify in virtually all of their cases involving adults. If a VE is going to testify at your hearing, you will be notified in advance in the Notice of Hearing.
Vocational experts are supposed to be neutral witnesses. Vocational experts are not supposed to provide their own evaluation of the medical evidence in your case, state whether you would be hired for a job, or state that you are or are not disabled. Instead, the vocational expert is there to help the judge decide whether you can do your past relevant work and whether you can do any jobs that exist in significant numbers in the national economy.
Your Past Relevant Work
The vocational expert helps the judge understand your past relevant work-the significant jobs you have done in the past 15 years. The vocational expert will describe each of these jobs as you did them and as they are usually performed in the economy. (Your claim can be denied if you can still do your job as it is usually performed even if you can no longer do the job the way you actually did it. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen very often.)
The vocational expert will also describe the skill and exertional level of your past relevant work. Exertional level pertains to how much you had to lift and how much standing and walking was involved in these jobs. Skill level depends on how long it would take a new employee to learn to do your job with average proficiency. If it would take more than 30 days, you may have acquired work skills that could be transferable to other, easier jobs. If so, the vocational expert will describe your transferable skills, state what jobs these skills are transferable to, and how many of these jobs there are in the economy.
Six Rules for Witnesses to Follow
There really are only a few rules for testifying. Follow these rules and you will give the best possible testimony in support of the claimant.
S.1. Tell the truth.
S.2. Don’t exaggerate to try to “help” the claimant.
S.3. But don’t minimize either.
S.4. Testify only about things that you’ve observed.
S.5. It is okay to give examples and explain your answers by describing those things you have observed.
S.6. Leave arguing the case to the representative.
Three Mistakes for Witnesses to Avoid
1. The worst mistake is deliberately exaggerating the claimant’s disability, thinking that this will help the claimant win. But exaggeration usually backfires because the judge simply doesn’t believe it.
2. Another mistake is trying to give “medical” testimony-that is, offering medical conclusions that really ought to come from a doctor.
Finally, you do not want to take over the role of the representative and argue the claimant’s case.
An Accredited Disability Representative with more than 16 years experience, Diana Wade believes her clientele can be comfortable knowing that she is recognized by SSA and a charter member of NADR. To contact Ms. Wade call 661-821-0494, email dianapwade@att.net or visit http://CaliforniaDisability.net.
