SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY: MULTIPLE HEARINGS AND APPEALS OVER YEARS FINALLY SUCCEED IN AWARD

Statistics show that the majority of claimants give up on their claims due to the length of time the Social Security Administration can drag these claims out; perhaps for many years if not decades. According to the Social Security Administrations latest figures, projected for 2006, the average time for the Administration to currently process an initial disability claim application, process the hearing and to process any appeal on that hearing will be 802 days or over 2 years. http://www.ssa.gov/
The young man in this case had claimed he had been disabled since 1999. More than six years later, Social Security Administration finally agreed and awarded him his much needed benefits.
This young man had severe back injuries with multiple surgeries such that he could no longer lift, carry, stand, while or sit of for prolonged periods of time. He had herniated discs, compression fractures, surgical fusions, surgical placement of cages, nerve injections, and artificial desk replacements to his spine. We had submitted numerous medical reports over many years of time showing that he was severely disabled and no longer capable of working. In fact, during the interim, a separate United States agency had already placed him on civil service disability retirement due to his inability to work. Despite all this evidence Social Security Administration continue to deny his claim for disability benefits; finding him capable of working. The claimant went through several hearings with Social Security judges who continued to merely repeat what prior judge had ruled in his claim. However, diligence does pay off when dealing with the United States Government, especially the Social Security Administration. After once again appealing this case, this time being heard before a different Social Security Administration judge, that judge finally recognized that this claimant was severely disabled and awarded him disability benefits back to 1999. This claim serves to show that it does pay to keep pursuing and following up on a Social Security disability claim. Although many years may pass from the beginning of the claim to the end as long as the claimant does not give up on his appeal rights sooner or later, and with the proper supporting evidence, claimants can succeed and obtain their disability benefits from the Social Security Administration and beat the odds.

FEDERAL WORKERS COMPENSATION: ECAB ORDERS GOVERNMENT TO MEET ITS BURDEN OF PROOF

In this federal worker compensation claim the federal employee was first injured on the job more than five years ago while working for the federal government. Although his injury to his knee was severe and required surgeries, the United States took almost four years to initially accept his claim of injury. After his claim of injury was finally accepted, the claimant submitted a medical rating report showing he had a 33% impairment of his right leg due to the damage to his knee. The United States in turn submitted the claim to its own in house doctors who determined that the claimant only had 5% impairment to his leg.
We appealed this finding of the United States and argued that the doctors used by the government had issued reports that entirely failed to explain how they arrived at their figure of only 5% impairment. The Employees Compensation Appeals Board (ECAB) agreed with our arguments.
The ECAB ruled that when the United States obtains an opinion from a specialist, the government bears the responsibility to insure that the medical reports obtained are correct. If the medical report is not correct or requires explanation, then the government, not the claimant, must obtain and provide this clarification or explanation. Here the government failed to explain how its specialist report determined that the claimant had only 5% impairment; especially when that report did not meet or comply with regulatory guidelines. As such, the finding of the doctors for the government was not sufficient, and the ECAB ordered the government to re-determine the issue of how much more than 5% impairment the claimant has suffered to his leg. In the meantime, the claimant is permitted to keep the 5% award already made by the government to him for his injury.