ARE HEARINGS 'NON-ADVERSARIAL"?

When Social Security denies your application for disability benefits, you appeal the decision.  About a year later, you and your representative appear before an administrative law judge asking for approval of your benefits.  The hearing is supposed to be non-adversarial.

In legal terms, this means that Social Security does not have an attorney at the hearing arguing that your benefits should be denied.  And they don't.  Who they will have at the hearing is a "vocational expert," typically a vocational rehabilitation counselor who gives evidences about the kind of past work you have performed and any other work you may still be able to do.  Sometimes I feel that these "experts" are neutral, as they are supposed to be.  Other times, I feel that the "experts" are adversarial, in that they find ridiculous jobs that they say the claimant can perform.

In one hearing, the vocational expert said that my client could not perform any of her past relevant work.  However, she testified that my claimant could perform "other work."  As an example of other work, the "expert" said the claimant would be an "egg breaker."

More for fun than anything, I asked the expert to provide a job description for an egg breaker.  Here is what she read:

"Individual takes an egg in one hand and taps it over a hard surface to crack the shell. Using both hands, the individual pulls the shell apart, allowing the egg to fall into a bowl or other utensil."

As humorous as that is, it's real.  And if you're not careful, some callous administrative law judge will use it to deny your Social Security disability benefits (again).  Sometimes the attorney or representative needs to be a little more "adversarial" to point out the silliness of such "jobs" that don't really exist in real life.

 

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