WHAT IS A HEARING BRIEF? WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

A pre-hearing brief (also called a pre-hearing Memorandum) is a document prepared by your representative to succinctly explain the theory of your disability case to the judge who will hear it soon.  By "theory of the case" we mean the logical and legal argument as to why you are disabled under Social Security law and why you should be approved for benefits.

 As the name implies, a brief should be a short, concise document.  My briefs usually run 3 to 5 pages.  Its main purpose is to give the administrative law judge the nuts and bolts of your case in a document that he or she can read in ten minutes.  Your appeal file may contain 300 pages. Keep in mind that a Social Security judge will typically hear six cases per day.  There isn't time to read 300 pages of evidence and try to sort out the material facts.  Therefore, a 3 or 4 page document that exposes the key facts and tells where to look for details is valuable.

 In addition, a properly written brief will explain negative evidence which creeps into Social Security disability case files.  For certain, the disability determination agency that denied your claim in the first place will have entered unfavorable evidence - which is the reason you were denied.  However, the original DDS file will nearly always contain favorable evidence that can be used.  And the pre-hearing brief is a great place to "explain away" the logic of the negative evidence or to neutralize it with new evidence.

 Also, the pre-hearing brief may double as a request for an on-the-record decision or a bench decision.  The on-the-record decision is a fully favorable decision offered by the judge or an attorney adviser in the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR).  This decision prevents the need for a hearing and speeds up the claimant's payment.  A bench decision is where the judge makes an instant favorable decision at the conclusion of the hearing and enters it in the record, also speeding up payment of the claim.  The odds of getting one of these quicker decisions increases with presentation of an effective brief.

 An effective brief will be "brief," will cite only pertinent exhibits or evidence, will justify a favorable conclusion based on Social Security law or rulings and give the judge ample justification for a fully favorable decision.

Learn more about nosscr

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GETTING MONEY FROM SSDI

SSDI stands for Social Security Disability Insurance .  When you first began working, the Government deducted a percentage of your wages, called a FICA tax.  This continued as long as you worked, in most cases.  This money was matched by your employer and set aside in a government trust fund to help you if you later became disabled and could not work. SSDI is a type of government sponsored insurance program, usually called "Social Security disability insurance."  To get benefits out of SSDI, you must prove  that you have a medical disability so severe that you cannot work any full-time job; that this disability has lasted, or is expected to last, for at least 12 consecutive months. That sounds simple but Social Security has made it rather difficult to prove that you are disabled.  One reason is that their definition of 'disability' is so strict.  You usually must prove that you cannot perform even simple, unskilled work at the sedentary (sitting) leve
Read more

POST HEARING EVIDENCE

Many people assume that a Social Security disability case is over when the hearing has been held.  This isn't always the case.  Often there is post hearing work that should be done to achieve the best chance of a favorable decision. Everyone at a disability hearing works under pressure.  This includes the claimant, the representative, the vocational expert and even the administrative law judge.  Hearings are generally limited to less than one hour.  The judge will ask questions that place the claimant under stress to answer correctly.  The representative or attorney will be asked to respond to procedural issues or points of law that place him or her under pressure.  The judge must constantly conduct the hearing so that it follows Social Security laws, rules and regulations.  Further, the judge must form accurate hypothetical questions for the vocational expert based on the medical and vocational evidence in the file and upon the claimant's testimony.  The vocational expert th
Read more

PARTIALLY FAVORABLE DECISIONS ON DISABILITY

You attended a hearing on your Social Security disability claim.  A few weeks later, you receive a Notice of Decision in the mail that says you have received a Partially Favorable decision.  Does this mean that you are only partially disabled, not fully disabled? ANSWER:  No.  Social Security does not make awards for partial disability.  You are either disabled or not disabled.  There is no such category as "partially disabled" within Social Security law. A "partially favorable" decision means that the administrative law judge has found you to be disabled.  However, he or she has changed some material fact in your application.  Most often, this change involves the established onset date--the date you were found to have become disabled.  For example, in your application you may have alleged that you became disabled on June 1, 2012.  After reviewing the facts of the case, the judge may have decided that you did not become disabled until September 1, 2012.  Theref
Read more