|
Law Blogs
featuring James Publishing authors
|
95 Law Books
for Sale
Bankruptcy Courts & Procedures $99
Limited Liability
Company $99
Civil Rights Digest
$99
Attacking Drunk Driving Tests $119
NEW Criminal Defense Tools and
Techniques $129
Defending Drinking
Drivers $129
Federal
Criminal Practice $119
Federal
Forfeiture Guide service $225
Federal
Prison Guidebook $79
Federal Sentencing
Guide
service $350
NEW
Innovative DUI Trial Tools $99
Relentless
Criminal Cross-
Examination $99
9th Circuit Criminal Law Reporter service
$250
Age
Discrimination Litigation $129
Deposing
& Examining Employment Witnesses $99
Employment Evidence $99
Federal Employment Jury
Instructions $99
Litigating Employment Discrimination Cases
$149
Litigating Sexual Harassment and
Sex
Discrimination Cases $99
Asset
Protection Strategies
& Forms $99
Determination of Income for
Child
Support $99
Frumkes on Divorce Taxation $99
How
Insurance Companies
Settle
Cases $99
Insurance Settlements $129
Building Trial Notebooks $99
Deposition Checklists & Strategies $99
Federal
Trial Evidence $99
Federal Trial
Objections: Civil and Criminal $99
Guerrilla Discovery $99
Handling Federal Discovery $99
How to
Prepare for, Take and
Use a
Deposition $99
Is It
Admissible? $99
Legal
Secretary Federal Litigation $99
Model
Interrogatories $99
Preparing for Trial in Federal
Court $99
Qualifying & Attacking Expert Witnesses $99
Small-Case Litigation Forms $99
Trial
Evidence Foundations $99
Trial
Hearsay - Objections and Exceptions $89.98
Trial
Objections $99
NEW
Trial
Preparation Tools $99
Triple-Threat Discovery Forms $79
Deposing & Examining Doctors $129
Determining Economic Damages $99
NEW Exposing Deceptive Defense Doctors $99
Litigating Neck & Back Injuries $99
Maximizing Damages in Small Personal Injury Cases $99
Medical
Evidence $99
Medical
Proof of Whiplash $99
Personal Injury Forms: Discovery & Settlement $99
Personal Injury Trial
Notebook $99
Proving
Mental & Emotional
Injuries $129
Slip &
Fall Practice $99
Bohr's
Social Security Issues
Annotated $129
Medical Issues in Social Security Disability $129
Social
Security Advisory Service $149
Social Security Disability Advocate's Handbook $119
Social
Security Disability Medical
Tests
$129
Social
Security Disability Practice $149
- California -
CA
Causes of Action $99
CA
Courts & Judges $149
CA
Drunk Driving Law $129
CA
Legal Secretary $99
CA Lien
Claims in Workers' Compensation Cases $119
CA
Objections $99
CA
Pretrial Practice & Forms $129
CA
Workers' Compensation Law & Practice $149
FORECITE
California service $295
- Florida -
FL
Causes of Action $99
FL
Criminal Cases Notebook $125
FL
Criminal Trial Procedure $99
FL
Family Law & Practice $129
FL
Family Law Trial Notebook $99
FL
Legal Secretary $129
FL
Pretrial Practice $129
FL
Trial Objections $99
IL
Objections $99
IL
Pretrial Practice $129
- New York -
NY
Civil Practice Before Trial $129
NY
Fire District Officers' Guide $125
NY
Judge Reviews & Court
Directory $125
NY
Motor Vehicle Accidents $99
NY
Objections $89.98
NY
Trial Notebook $119
- Texas -
TX
Criminal Forms $99
TX
Criminal Jury Charges $129
TX
Criminal Lawyer's Handbook $129
TX
DTPA Forms & Practice Guide $99
TX
Employment Law $149
TX
Estate Planning $99
TX
Objections $99
TX
Pretrial Practice $129
NEW TX
Probate Forms and Procedures
$99
NEW TX
Trusts &
Clauses $129
TX Small-Firm
Practice Tools $99
A printable version
of our 8-page catalogue is available for instant downloading, viewing
and printing in PDF format. Complete book descriptions and
easy ordering!
We respect your privacy rights.
|
by David Traver
Challenge Vocational Testimony
and Rectify ALJ Errors
David Traver’s sophisticated handbook will help you (1) attack
vocational testimony, and (2) use the Process Unification Rulings as
powerful weapons for your claimants.
Topics include:
Problems with the DOT
-
Learn more about
the DOT in an afternoon than most VEs learn in graduate school and 25
years of practice
-
Use studies from
the National Academy of Sciences to rip apart reliance on the DOT
-
Use Social Security
Regulations to prove the DOT is a dead letter.
-
Are SVP data in the
DOT reliable?
-
See how the Social
Security Administration’s reliance on the DOT bases its adjudication
system upon outdated vocational science
-
Why didn’t anybody
weigh anything when analyzing strength demands of the jobs in the DOT?
How to attack other data sources used by vocational experts
-
There is no
published source of data that could reliably be used to answer the
typical hypothetical question at a Social Security disability hearing.
Learn why.
-
Make the O*NET work
for your client, live on your computer at the hearing
-
Learn how to let
the air out of Vocational Expert’s “census data”
-
Use the
Occupational Outlook Handbook to blast VE testimony in sample
cross-examination testimony
-
Use the part-time
job card to trump VE testimony about vocational sources
-
Track an attack on
VE testimony from a pre-hearing memo to a District Court decision
Vocational information and analysis at Step Four
-
Stop losing cases
at step-four because you don’t know what’s happening at the hearing
-
Was it really
past-relevant work? Understand the Regulations and Rulings on-point
-
Does past-relevant
work actually have to exist to be harmful to your client?
-
Show how to protect
your client from the DOT and other sources of vocational information in
composite jobs cases
-
Use the handy
Transferability of Skills worksheet
-
Benefit from
reviewing comprehensive transferability of skills examples
Vocational evidence at Step Five
-
Trump the VE with
the Medical-Vocational Guidelines
-
The Commissioner
does not know what a significant number of jobs is, so prove your
favorite number for the record
-
Use
occupational-based arguments to prove your case
-
Is a “vocational
advantage” really bestowed by transferable skills in your case?
-
Watch out for Fast
problems in your grid arguments
Transferability of skills analysis
-
Stop being baffled
by transferability of skills questions
-
Make Specific
Vocational Preparation work in your cross-examination
-
What mental
abilities are needed for unskilled work?
-
Use vocational
information to disprove transferability of skills
-
Master the
technical language of the Medical-Vocational Guidelines
-
Use the Rulings to
prove your Grids case
-
Learn from sample
cross-examination of VE testimony
Practice Tips
Almost every page of the
Handbook contains a valuable practice tip. Here are several examples:
Past relevant work
“A common error both ALJs and claimants’ representatives make is failing
to appreciate that unless a claimant’s past work activity was
Substantial Gainful Activity, it cannot be Past Relevant Work. It first
is necessary to juxtapose all of a claimant’s work activity in the
relevant past against the criteria of each of the Social Security
Rulings listed under step one of this outline. Initially, determine
whether….” §302.15
Application of circuit decisions
“Claimants’ representatives and agency adjudicators alike have been
heard to say that nonacquiescence applies to all court cases for which
the agency has not issued an AR. Acting under such an incorrect
assumption, some adjudicators maintain they may not apply the holding in
any circuit court decision which is not accompanied by an AR. Such
statements evidence a fundamental misunderstanding of nonacquiescence
and an erroneous interpretation of SSR 96-1p. Under nonacquiescence, SSA
…. §404.1
Treating source medical opinions
“Often, ALJs decision writers and the Commissioner’s attorneys will
write the treating doctor’s opinions are “not consistent” with the
record. Pursuant to SSR 96-8p, the ALJ must give controlling weight to
the treating source’s opinion if it is “not inconsistent” with other
substantial evidence in the record. This is not merely a semantic issue.
The “not inconsistent” standard presumes the opinion’s prominence and
requires the ALJ to search the record for inconsistent evidence in order
to give the treating source’s opinion less than controlling weight.”
§502.3
Consultative exams
“It is a widespread practice among both DDS adjudicators and ALJs to
arrange for consultative examinations of claimants for no apparent
reason other than as an attempt to create “substantial evidence” to
justify denying a claim for disability benefits. Claimants’
representatives should not acquiesce in such improper adversarial
conduct. Instead….” §512.3
Treating source re-examination
“When it is apparent that a treating source’s medical opinion is not
well-supported, consider requesting a consultative examination by that
treating source so that the medical opinion becomes well-supported.
Similarly, if the treating source’s medical opinion is inconsistent with
other substantial evidence of record, consider requesting a
clarification from the treating source and/or other sources with which
the treating source’s medical opinion is inconsistent.” §515
Credibility
“Claimants’ representatives and agency adjudicators alike often
overlook or pay insufficient heed to the critical role played by a
claimant’s testimony, allegations, and credibility. Otherwise
meritorious claims routinely are unsuccessful due to this oversight or
inattentiveness. Because symptoms, such as pain, sometimes suggest a
greater severity of impairment than can be shown by objective medical
evidence alone, a claimant may be found disabled on nothing more than
the strength of the claimant’s allegations—if the claimant’s
symptom-related allegations are found to be credible.” §1000
Failure to follow treatment
“Because SSR 96-7p expressly delineates factors which adjudicators must
consider in evaluating a claimant’s failure to seek or follow treatment,
claimants’ representatives are forewarned of those issues. They should
therefore attempt to direct the testimony of the claimant and lay
witnesses at each of the above-listed six factors. Because the ALJ must
use this testimony to assess the claimant’s credibility, carefully
prepared testimony directed at establishing how each of these factors
actually enhances the claimant’s credibility may preempt the ALJ’s
ability to find the claimant not credible based on the claimant’s
failure to seek or follow treatment.” §1014.1
"Can the ALJ do that?”
Probably not. Nearly
every aspect of Social Security adjudication is governed by the Social
Security Rulings
Most ALJs are unaware
of the extent to which their hands are tied. You can educate them with this
authoritative toolbook. Dave Traver’s Handbook shows you how to turn the Rulings into
powerful weapons for your claimants:
-
Remind ALJs what
the Rulings require with 93 “commands” to agency adjudicators excerpted
from the Rulings.
-
Rebut common but
invalid reasons ALJs use to reject claimant’s allegations.
-
Prevent the ALJ
from rejecting a medical source statement based on the ALJ’s finding
that the medical source was not aware of all the medical and other
evidence in the file.
-
Help the ALJ find
that a treating physician’s medical opinion is entitled to “controlling
weight.”
-
Capitalize upon the
provision in SSR 96-7p that the consistency of an individual’s
statements is a strong indicator of the claimant’s credibility.
-
Using SSR 96-8p,
affirm that at Step 5 a claimant cannot be found “not disabled” on the
grounds that the claimant cannot perform part-time work.
-
Protect your
claimants from DDS adjudicators’ and ALJs’ practices of arranging for
unnecessary and/or inappropriate consultative examinations.
-
Ensure a nearly
automatic finding of disability by establishing specific limitations set
out on the Mental RFC Assessment Form.
-
Win market rate
“bad faith” attorneys’ fees for nonacquiescence (SSR 96-1p).
-
Use the “function
by function” RFC assessment requirement in SSR 96-8p to develop Step 4
and Step 5 exertional and non-exertional RFC issues.
-
Establish
fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome as disabling impairments using
SSR 96-3p, SSR 96-4p, and SSR 99-2p.
-
Use the testimony
of the agency’s Medical Expert to establish medical “equivalence.”
-
Avoid greater
weight being given to the opinion of the non-treating or examining
physicians by giving a complete copy of the claimant’s file and
obtaining a medical source opinion based on the complete record.
-
Use
interrogatories, instead of requesting subpoenas, to reduce the weight
given to the opinions of non-examining state agency physicians and
psychologists.
Updated annually.
ISBN 1-58021-033-4. Book
Price: $119.00
E7
View and Print the Brochure


Related Titles:
Bohr's
Social Security Issues Annotated
Social Security Advisory Service
Social Security Disability Medical
Tests
Social Security Disability Practice
More Social
Security Publications
|