Will the Administrative Law Judge Find You Disabled?

If you plan on pursuing your Social Security Disability claim in West Virginia, you should learn a little about the complicated and technical process by which the administrative law judge will determine if you are disabled.

Sometimes the process of proving you are disabled seems to defy common sense. One reason for this is that the judge must make his decision based on hypothetical rather than real-world factors. While in rare cases, it may be that a medical report on your injury is sufficient for the judge to find you disabled, you will likely have to prove to the Social Security Administration that you could not even hold jobs you would never be hired for.

While pursuing your claim, your Charleston Social Security disability attorney will have to prove, first, that your condition prevents you from performing adequately at any job you’ve held over the last fifteen years and, second, that your age, current education, and work experience prevent you from working many other jobs in your condition.

Can you remember the easiest job you’ve held over the past 15 years? You and your attorney will have to prove that you can’t perform that job due to your injuries, regardless of your current likelihood of being rehired for that job. If the company has shut down in the interim, this may mean you’ll have to prove you cannot work at a job that doesn’t even exist anymore.

You will then have to prove that your age and current education and work experience excludes you from many other common jobs. Likely, this will be the most complicated and confusing part of the process because you will have to prove your inability to do jobs that you obviously could never get.

A lot of the misconceptions that people have about Social Security disability claims come from hearing the phrase “totally and permanently disabled.” This language comes from worker’s compensation claims, which are very different from Social Security disability and SSI disability claims.

To qualify for a Social Security disability claim, you don’t need to be permanently disabled, just disabled for at least 12 months. Nor do you need to be completely disabled; you just need to be unable to work. Very few people who are granted Social Security disability benefits are totally and permanently disabled.

If you require the assistance of a Charleston Social Security disability attorney, please call Mark Underwood at the number listed at the top of this page, or fill out the contact form to the right.