Social Security and Vocational Expert Testimony

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Transcription:

"Hi my name is Andrew Kinney.  I’m an attorney; I practice social security disability law and supplemental security income law at Hoglund Law Offices.  Today, I wanted to talk about vocational expert testimony at hearings. 

When you apply for social security benefits there is a decision at the application stage, and then there will be another decision at what they call the reconsideration stage.  The third stage is the hearing stage.  At this stage you will be in front of a federal judge, testifying as to why you can’t work fulltime.  Another individual that is almost always in the room is a vocational expert.  The government hires them to give testimony about your ability to work a fulltime job given the limitations the judge would pose.

What these means is, if you are at a social security hearing, there is a person that bears on whether you will be approved or not.  There are also, at times, medical experts, but for the sake of this video I want to talk about vocational experts.  Vocational experts listen to your testimony and give opinions about the number of jobs within certain restrictions that you might have.  What is important about vocational expert testimony is that the judge may approve or deny based the opinions of the expert. 

If you have an attorney at a hearing, the attorney will then cross examine the vocational expert that will give more limitations that might knock out the three jobs that came up.  You will hear about jobs that in theory you could do, but keep in mind that the vocational expert is not testifying about your practical ability to do it.  In other words, the job expert and social security in general is not worried about whether you have a car to get to the job or whether the job will pay enough or whether the job is beneath you and you have more skills than that job.  Generally, vocational expert testimony is giving ground level work that exists but isn’t in signification enough numbers that you could do it or is something that you never want to do or will do.

So keep in mind when you are at a hearing, the job expert may make or break your case.  Well, what do you do with the expert testimony?  If you are on your own, you can certainly ask the judge on the front end, at least at the first scheduled hearing, that you would like to get representation, that you would like to get an attorney to help you.  That is fine, but don’t expect it though if you’ve already had one hearing scheduled.  If you are on your own, it is reasonable to ask the job expert questions after the judge has asked questions about limitations that weren’t included.  For instance, if you have problems with your hands, what if you couldn’t handle objects more than occasionally.  That is just one of many examples.  If you have pain that affects your concentration, perhaps you would ask: if someone had pain that affected their ability to stay on task and you were off task 20% of the normal work day, would that affect your ability to work?  If you can get the sense here that there are very specific questions for vocational experts that you may not know or at least be ready for if you are on your own. 

Having an attorney is very helpful for vocational expert testimony because the judge knows that the vocational expert testimony is crucial the determination.  If you have more questions about vocational expert testimony or how it plays into your approval for benefits, please feel free to call our office at 1-800-850-7867.  You can also go online at HoglundLaw.com we have information, hopefully it is helpful and hopefully this video was helpful to explain vocational expert testimony.  Thank you."