Questions at Your Disability Hearing

If you would like more information about the types of questions that you may be asked at your hearing, contact a Charlotte SSD attorney at (704) 815-6055.

As part of the process of preparing for your case, your Charlotte SSD attorney will discuss the types of questions that you will likely be asked at your disability hearing. Here is a brief list that your Charlotte SSD lawyer may go over with you before the hearing.

Work Experience

Your Charlotte SSD attorney can explain that “past relevant work” has a special definition in Social Security terms. It includes all work that a claimant has completed within the last 15 years in which the claimant had enough time to learn how to adequately perform the work and qualified as “substantial gainful activity.” Therefore, a claimant must be prepared to answer questions about the place of employment, dates of employment, job title, general job duties, earning record, reason for termination and whether the person’s impairment impacted each job that he or she had for the 15 years preceding the hearing date.

Work Exertion

On a similar line of questioning, your Charlotte SSD attorney may also prepare you for questions regarding the exertional level of each job. For example, you might be asked how often you had to carry items, how heavy each item was, the nature of each item and the average weight of items lifted or carried. Additionally, a claimant might be asked about the period of time that the job required standing, walking, bending, crawling, sitting, climbing or balancing.

Environmental Factors

If the claimant’s impairment may be exacerbated by environmental conditions, the administrative law judge may want to flesh out testimony in this regard. For example, the claimant might be expected to answer questions about the temperature conditions at each relevant place of work. Additionally, he or she may be asked about fumes, dusts or dangerous gases that he or she might come in contact with in each workplace.

Emotional Factors

Sometimes a combination of a physical impairment and an emotional impairment can make performing a job impractical. If stress was a part of the impairment, the claimant might be asked by his or her Charlotte SSD lawyer about the specific factors that made a particular job stressful, such as having to make decisions, having to perform work duties rapidly, having to be extremely precise or working with the public.

If you would like more information about the types of questions that you may be asked at your hearing, contact Bridgman Law Offices at (704) 815-6055.