Social Security Disability Hearings: Sequence of Events

Understanding the process associated with Social Security disability hearings will help to demystify the hearing for you and ensure that you do not experience undue anxiety that might hurt your testimony and, therefore, your case. A qualified Ocala disability attorney will ensure that you are properly prepared for your hearing.

Most Social Security disability hearings begin with the administrative law judge reciting the history of your Social Security disability claim as well as stating the issues on which a decision must be made. In many cases, the judge will offer a somewhat generic and broad statement as to how you would be able to be found disabled for Social Security Administration purposes: not being able to perform “substantial gainful activity which exists in significant numbers in the economy, considering your age, education and work experience.” This is a much lower standard than not being able to do anything.

The judge will then question you, after which your Ocala Social Security lawyer will be given the opportunity to ask any questions of you that he or she would like to ask. If you have been well-prepared to testify on your own behalf by your Ocala Social Security lawyer, he or she may not even have to ask much in the way of questions.

Some administrative law judges might expect your Ocala disability attorney to handle most of the questioning. Although giving an incomplete answer may seem appropriate given that your Ocala disability attorney already knows everything concerning what you are going to say in your testimony, you will need to answer the inquiries posed by your Ocala disability attorney as if they had been asked by a stranger. This is because the audience, i.e. the administrative law judge, knows nothing of the answers unless you say something, and the judge is the one who will be deciding your claim. It is highly probable that the judge will have read your file prior to the hearing, but when you are testifying, the safest assumption is that the judge knows little to nothing about your claim, so explain everything.

For a free consultation with Ocala disability lawyer CJ Henry, please fill out the claim evaluation form on this website.