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NO FEE UNTIL WE WIN!
SOCIAL SECURITY HEARING FORMS
Gordon & Pont • Jul 10, 2019
FILL THEM OUT WITH CARE
Hearing Forms
The last forms before your Social Security Hearing – Fill Them Out With Care.
Before being awarded Social Security Disability benefits, most applicants will have to go through an Administrative Hearing. Depending on the backlog in your particular area, you should expect that it will take 12 – 24 months from the time you submit your initial application to be scheduled for a hearing. By the time you receive the Notice of Hearing, you will have a new impairing condition – Form Fatigue.
Form Fatigue
is that inescapable condition that results from Social Security’s incessant demands for forms from its applicants. By the time an applicant’s Administrative Hearing is scheduled, he will have been called upon to fill out an Application form, a Request for Administrative Hearing, 2-3 disability forms, 1-2 function report forms, 1-2 work history reports, authorizations and maybe more.
The unfortunate result of Form Fatigue
is that by the time the Claimant receives their Hearing Forms, they are tempted to dismiss them or not give them the careful consideration they do require. Succumbing to Form Fatigue
is a mistake.
Several months before your hearing date, you will receive your Notice of Hearing, and with it 4 more
forms. Most people are so excited to finally have a hearing scheduled they may overlook these forms. They are important, so let’s go through each:
1st: Acknowledgement of Hearing. This one is very simple. All you need do is sign it, check that you will attend your hearing and send it to the OHO(Office of Hearings Operations).
2nd: Recent Medical Treatment: In this form, you are to give detailed contact information for each medical provider you have been treated by since the date you submitted your appeal for hearing and the approximate period of treatment. This includes treatment in hospitals whether it be in-patient or ER visits. Also, you are asked to explain what your doctors have told you about your condition.
[Attorney Comment:
Due to Form Fatigue, many give only the barest of information, and leave off medical providers, ER treatment and critical contact information – addresses and phone numbers.]
3rd: Current Medications: For each prescription and non-prescription medication you currently take, set forth: The reason you take the medication, the dose you take, the approximate date you started taking the medication (if remembered) and the name of the medical provider advising you to take it.
[Attorney Comment:
Due to Form Fatigue, many leave off medications. Check and recheck it. And, while this is not requested, I suggest that you say whether there are any medications your doctors have had you try but that you could not continue with, especially if it is due to drug intolerance, side effects and/or bad interaction with other medications and/or risks regarding other medical problems. For instance, a medication that may be great for depression may cause increased issues of hypertension. You want your attorney and your judge to know that.]
4th: Work Background: Here you are to detail the work, if any, that you have done since submitting your appeal. It is not necessary to repeat information you have provided in earlier forms.
[Attorney Comment:
If you have returned to work, and/or have made a failed work attempt, it is critical that your attorney know about that work as soon as possible. This information will impact the strategy going forward on the case and will require another form…..].
These Claimant Statements/Hearing Forms are important and need to be done with as much accuracy as you can muster. By the time the case is ready for hearing, your file will exceed 300 pages and could easily be as thick as a few thousand pages. The Judge will read your hearing forms for a quick summary of what has been happening with your health in the year or so since the appeal was filed. Depending on your judge’s method of hearing preparation, these forms may be the very first information on your case that your judge sees. First impressions count.
Best cures for form fatigue: Deep breaths, organization and a win at the end.
Submitted by: Tracey Cahn, Esq.
Ms. Cahn has been advocating for Social Security Claimants throughout NJ, NY, CT, and PA since 2002.
A recent Washington Post article revealed how frequently the SSA loses when Claimants appeal their denials in Federal Court. Remands back to the ALJ are at a record high. "In the last two fiscal years, federal judges considering appeals for denied benefits found fault with almost 6 in every 10 cases and sent them back to administrative law judges at Social Security for new hearings - the highest rate of rejections in years, agency statistics show." Why is this Happening? "Federal judges have complained of legal errors, inaccurate assessments of whether claimants can work, failures to consider medical evidence, and factual mistakes, according to court rulings and Social Security’s own data." The SSA is making more mistakes and wrongfully denying more claims. “The system has become one of ‘how do we deny this claim’ rather than ‘what is the right answer in this person’s case?’” ... “And the Federal Courts agree: ‘You have to do a better job.’” Success Stories: "At his hearing in March, a new Social Security judge considered the rulings by three federal judges who found that the agency failed to properly consider the severity of his headaches, nerve damage, and other impairments by ignoring treatment notes from his doctors. An outside doctor Social Security hired to examine him also described severe “pain and anxiety” from his injuries. He prepared to wait for months for another rejection. Instead, the written decision came just two weeks later: Sheldon had been awarded the monthly benefits — along with $205,000 in back pay. His first check landed in his bank account this month." This is why we do what we do. To read the full Washington Post article: Click here - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/05/25/social-security-disability-denials-court-remands/
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