Back Pain

Back pain is the most common debilitating condition in the United States: Almost half of the American workers experience back or neck pain each year Back pain accounts for over 250,000 days of lost work Workers lose approximately $50 billion a year in wages due to back pain Many insurers limit back claimants from receiving long-term disability benefits. But an experienced Ocala FL disability attorney can fight for you. To learn more about qualifying for herniated disc disability benefits, contact CJ Henry Law Firm, PLLC today. Back Structure and Types of Pain Many people confuse the spine with the spinal cord. The spinal cord is a series of nerves and nerve fibers that sends messages to the brain. It's the biggest nerve…Read More

Your Ocala Social Security disability lawyer knows that back injuries, more than almost any other injury or condition, are the reason most Social Security claimants seek disability benefits. Back pain is challenging to prove because while claimants may suffer from muscle spasms, pain, and limited ability to sit, stand, lift or bend, the medical evidence may not show serious abnormalities. Low Correlation of Back Pain and Medical Imaging Results The medical community acknowledges that often a person’s symptoms of pain do not match up with medical results (such as x-rays or medical imaging). Some patients with severe pain show only mild abnormalities, while others with x-ray evidence of severe joint and bone degeneration experience mild or no pain. Even the…Read More

Subjective Evidence and Your Credibility Your Ocala Social Security disability attorney knows that objective evidence is important in any back injury case, but also knows that the Social Security Administration (SSA) must take into account subjective evidence such as your medical history, your credibility and the consistency of your complaints. The SSA will examine how consistent your subjective complaints of pain have been: - Is there an overall consistency over time? - Are your complaints the same with every doctor you have seen? - If there are inconsistencies, can they be explained by changes in your symptoms over a period of time? The SSA will look at various things when assessing your credibility: - How have you gone about seeking…Read More

The problem mentioned most frequently by Social Security disability applicants is low back pain resulting from a back injury. The challenge is to prove that your pain is real and disabling. SSA Consideration of Back Pain Evidence The SSA will examine three factors when determining the severity of your back injury impairment: Objective abnormalities Reported pain and other symptoms Credibility Objective Medical Evidence Not Conclusive Many claimants suffer pain and limitation of motion but have insignificant neurological findings.  It is entirely possible for a claimant to be disabled but exhibit very little objective evidence of impairment.  A chronic back strain with no evidence of x-ray changes may still be disabling. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computerized tomography (CT), and x-rays of…Read More

Standing, walking, and sitting limitations If you are under the age of 50, you will probably need to convince the Social Security Administration that you cannot perform most sedentary jobs to win benefits.  Evidence of limitations in your ability to perform the specific functions required by sedentary work is crucial.  Sedentary jobs require a certain capacity to sit, walk, and stand, among other requirements.  Proof that you lack the minimum capacity to perform these functions can establish that there are few sedentary jobs that you can perform. Standing and walking restrictions For the most part, sedentary work requires the capacity to stand and walk intermittently for a total of two hours of an eight-hour workday. Any significant reduction in your…Read More

An experienced Florida Social Security disability attorney will tell you that the Social Security Administration differentiates between evidence from “acceptable” medical sources and “other” medical sources. You may be surprised to learn that chiropractors appear on the list of “other” medical sources, a list that includes, among others, nurse practitioners and naturopaths. In fact, the administrative law judge hearing your Social Security disability case may consider chiropractic evidence to be the least reliable form of “other” medical source evidence. Accordingly, the judge presiding over your hearing may assign less weight to records from your chiropractor compared to records from other medical sources. Likewise, the judge may give less credibility to your chiropractor’s opinion regarding your impairment. Due to the lack…Read More