Resources

Your ability to give detailed testimony at your Florida Social Security disability hearing will be a significant factor in the success of your claim. As an experienced Ocala Social Security disability lawyer, I suggest that you keep at least one diary of your symptoms to assist you in obtaining disability benefits in Florida as the quality and accuracy of your testimony will dramatically increase with the use of a simple diary. Your Memory Will Fade You may think you don’t need to keep a diary because it will be easy for you to recall the limitations on your routine daily activities.  However, it may be more difficult for you to recall detailed facts about more than one symptom and the…Read More

If your disability is based on a need to alternate between sitting and standing, then at your Social Security disability hearing your Ocala disability lawyer will have the opportunity to question the government vocational expert who will testify on behalf of the Social Security Administration. Possible Questions to Ask a Vocational Expert About Working While Alternating Between Sitting and Standing Your disability lawyer might ask the government vocational expert some of the following questions: Have you identified jobs allowing alternate sitting and standing that are classified as light or sedentary jobs by The Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT)? For the jobs classified as light, can we assume that they require standing and walking for approximately six-hours out of what is…Read More

If an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) denied your disability claim and you would like to appeal your case to a federal court, your Ocala disability attorney will review the evidence similarly to the way that he or she analyzed it for the ALJ hearing. This means solidifying the theory of disability based on the Social Security Administration's five-step s sequential evaluation process. Reviewing the Evidence Supporting the ALJ Decision That Denied Disability Benefits When the ALJ denied your Social Security disability claim, he or she cited evidence to support the denial. Your disability lawyer will examine this evidence to determine the following: Do the evidence and the ALJ's findings correspond? Based on the evidence presented, does the ALJ's decision make…Read More

Ocala disability attorneys sometimes deal with the legal issue of the Social Security Administration’s requirements for residual functional capacity (RFC) with regard to alternating sitting and standing. A person who needs to alternately sit and stand presents a special situation and many vocational experts treat the RFC of having to alternate between sitting and standing as falling between the RFC for sedentary work and the RFC for light work. A Need to Alternately Sit and Stand May Qualify for Social Security Disability Benefits In some disability claims, the medical evidence results in an RFC assessment that is compatible with the performance of sedentary work or light work as long as the person can alternate between periods of sitting and standing…Read More

If you have postural limitations that pertain specifically to walking and standing, talk to your Ocala disability attorney regarding specific details of how these limitations affect your case. However, the following material provides some general information regarding how standing and walking limitations may affect your Social Security disability claim. The Social Security Administration’s Standing and Walking Time Requirements You are expected to be capable of standing and walking for an approximately two out of the eight hours of what is considered a regular workday. A significant decrease in this two hour standing and walking requirement reduces what is referred to as your sedentary occupational base. The Social Security Administration considers the sedentary occupational base of a person who can stand…Read More

Ocala Social Security disability lawyers are familiar with Social Security disability claims involving common digestive impairments such as abdominal distress, diarrhea and fecal incontinence. Some of these digestive impairments, such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, are generally known as Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD). Social Security Disability Claims and IBDs IBDs present any number of symptoms such as diarrhea, fecal incontinence, rectal bleeding, abdominal pain, vomiting or arthralgia, that often cause you to spend a lot of time away from your workstation during the course of your normal workday. These conditions often result in a great deal of time spent in the restroom and it is unpredictable as to when those conditions will present themselves. You may also suffer from…Read More

Family members, friends, former co-workers, or neighbors may be able to help you qualify for Social Security disability benefits by testifying at your hearing. The Social Security Administration acknowledges that the observations of people who know you can help the ALJ understand how a medical impairment affects your ability to work. There are a number of topics that such a lay witness can testify about at your hearing.  Previously, we mentioned these three: your RFC; the onset date of your disability; your past relevant work. Here are four more: Mental Impairments If you have a mental impairment, such as depression or bi-polar disorder, lay witness testimony can be important in describing your daily activities, ability to function socially, attentiveness, perseverance…Read More

The knowledge and experience of an Ocala Social Security disability lawyer is invaluable when arranging for testimony from lay witnesses regarding your impairments. Your Ocala disability lawyer should discuss with you who you believe would be the best witnesses on your behalf. Your lawyer will then contact these potential witnesses to discuss their observations and select only the best one or two witnesses (in unusual cases more may be necessary). Each witness will be provided with information about the hearing and the general type of testimony expected of him or her. Your disability lawyer will also send each lay witness a letter notifying the witness of the date, time and place of the hearing. As part of the preparation process,…Read More

Your Ocala Social Security lawyer may ask your family members, friends, former co-workers or neighbors to testify at your Social Security disability hearing.  These people are called lay witnesses, to distinguish them from expert witnesses, like a doctor or vocational expert. Your Ocala Social Security disability lawyer will get your thoughts on who might be good lay witnesses for your case.  Then your lawyer will talk to these people to see if they are willing to testify and will make good witnesses. Social Security rulings recognize that ALJ’s should consider lay witness testimony. In evaluating lay witness testimony, ALJs are to “consider such factors as the nature and extent of the relationship, whether the evidence is consistent with other evidence,…Read More

If you have a mental impairment, you will probably need to convince the ALJ at your disability hearing that you are not able to perform the mental activities that are generally required for unskilled work. If you still have these abilities, you will probably not qualify for disability benefits. Your Ocala disability attorney or the administrative law judge will need to ask you some questions to help the judge fully understand how restricted your ability to work is due to your mental impairments. The questions will be designed to determine whether you have the following skills and abilities that are required for all paid unskilled jobs.  1.   Responding appropriately to supervision, co-workers, and work pressures in a work setting.…Read More