WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH A TOUGH DISABILITY JUDGE?

 WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU HAVE A TOUGH JUDGE AT A DISABILITY HEARING:

 

 1.  Be sure you understand your case.  What is the legal basis for an award of disability?  Is it Listing Level?  Grid Rule?  

2.  Make your medical evidence overwhelming.  Most of the time, tough judges have a very restricted personal sense of what "disability" means.  Make your case make sense to the judge.

3.  Research your judge.  Chances are, some other lawyer out there has come across this guy before you.  Look at websites like Disability Judges to find out what makes the judge tick.

4.  Engage the testimony of the claimant's treating physician(s).  Find a really appropriate "Residual Functional Capacity" form and ask the doctor to complete and sign it.

5.  Always be pleasant and professional with the judge, even if he/she provokes you.  He/she is not always right, but is always the judge.

6.  Finally prepare well.  These "tough" judges will put you through the paces.