This was precisely the lesson learned by a client who decided not to give up on his disability claims even though he had been repeatedly denied on his claim by SSA clerical staff workers and eventually a SSA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ).
In this client's case; he had applied for disability claiming that severe mental problems prevented him from doing any work. The SSA clerks as expected repeatedly denied his claim. The SSA ALJ Judge also denied his claim saying that although the client was disabled due to severe mental problems, he was not entitled to any disability benefits as the client was an alcoholic. The problem was that the SSA ALJ never provided any substantial evidence to support his finding that the client's severe mental impairments were due to alcohol abuse. That was what we argued to the federal court on appeal and the federal court agreed. The federal court found that where there is evidence of severe mental impairments that disable a person and there is evidence of drug or alcohol abuse, the SSA ALJ bears the burden to separate the two diseases to determine their full impact effect on a claimant's ability to work or not work. Here the ALJ did not bother to separate the client's admittedly severe mental impairments from the effects of any alleged alcohol abuse. The federal court recommended the SSA ALJ's decision to deny benefits be overturned and the case returned to the SSA for re-hearing.
DENIAL OF FEDERAL MEDICAL DISABILITY RETIREMENT CLAIM RESCINDED
In this federal disability retirement claim, the client had applied for medical disability retirement under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). She alleged that she was no longer capable of working at her federal job due to severe mental and physical disorders. In fact her federal employer agency agreed that she could no longer do her job and that accommodation or reassignment of her to other work was not possible.
And once again the federal system continued to deny her claim for disability retirement benefits.
However she also stuck with her claim and continued her appeal up to the Merit System Protection Board asking for a hearing before an Administrative Judge.
There we obtained and provided medical evidence from her doctors showing that the client was not able to function in a workplace environment. We also obtained and provided a vocational evaluation that showed, after thorough testing, the client would not be able to work in her federal job nor at any other job due to her severe impairments.
Upon filing this evidence and then waiting until the eve of hearing, the federal agency quickly issued a statement agreeing that the client was entitled to her medical disability retirement benefits and rescinded in full their prior history of denials on her claim without further comment. The MSPB promptly ordered award and payment of benefits.
FEDERAL WORKERS' COMPENSATION OVERRULES OWN DENIALS; AWARDS BENEFITS
In this claim for federal workers' compensation benefits from the USDOL "Office of Workers' Compensation Programs" (OWCP), the client had filed a claim for an on the job injury to her back due to improper work placement. The OWCP repeatedly denied her claim finding that the client had failed to provide medical evidence of injury and provided no witnesses to any injury.
The client rightfully continued with her appeal to the OWCP. On appeal we argued that per the OWCP's own case decisions, an on the job injury in the federal workplace does not have to be confirmed by eyewitnesses in order to establish that the work incident had indeed occurred.
In fact, we showed that per the OWCP's own internal reports and experts, this left-handed client was admittedly wrongly placed by the federal employer into a right-handed work station causing her to literally work in a hunched, backward position.
And despite contentions by the government that the workstation had been ergonomically designed, we showed that the federal agency own records revealed that no ergonomic training had been provided to the client.
As regards any alleged lack of medical evidence of injury we showed the claimant had properly and dutifully submitted years of medical treatment reports that the OWCP had simply and wrongly ignored. We argued on appeal that the OWCP cannot simply ignore the medical evidence of record and then claim that no injury occurred due to lack of medical evidence.
These arguments on appeal were successful and that USDOL OWCP reversed its prior decisions denying her claim for federal worker's compensation and awarded her full benefits
Trying to understand the laws and regulations surrounding disability benefits can be incredibly confusing for the layman. It's almost impossible unless you have devoted your education and career to understanding this specific niche. If you want to cut through the all the confusing obstacles that stand in your way, give the offices of James R. Linehan a call as soon as possible. If too much time passes, you and your family could well miss out on substantial federal benefits that you are otherwise entitled to receive.
