Your Disability Hearing in North Carolina

by Tim Moore. Free Case Evaluation here.

What happens at a Disability Hearing in North Carolina?

If you have a disability claim in North Carolina for Social Security Disability or SSI, there is a very good chance you will end up at a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge.

Note: If you need assistance on your disability claim, or need help getting your claim started, call our office at 919-890-8519.

If this happens to you, do not worry about this fact for this reason: more than seventy percent of all cases are denied at the application level and even more individuals are denied on the first appeal, the NC disability reconsideration. So, we just assume this will happen. If it doesn’t, that’s wonderful because a person can get their benefits much sooner. But if it does happen, that doesn’t mean your case will not be approved. Most cases are actually approved at hearings. And at the hearing level, your chances of approval are much higher, especially if your case is well-prepared and well-presented to the judge.

All disability hearings start in a similar way. The judge will begin the hearing with a standard set of questions to establish the record. For this reason, they will ask you your name, age and date of birth, your address, the type of home you live in, your height and weight, whether you are right or left handed, if you have children living with you, and how far your education went.

What follows that may be a general type of questioning by the judge to you, the claimant:

The judge may ask you about your past jobs, what you did on them, and also ask you about your daily activities. In doing so, they may ask you to describe “a normal day” for you. It is important when they do this that you accurately tell them what you do…so that they can get a good idea of what you CANNOT do. For example, if you cannot grocery shop without assistance because you cannot lift things into the cart, or you cannot walk from the parking lot to the front of the store (this could be due to knees, ankles, hips, swelling in the feet, shortness of breath, etc), the judge needs to know. Because this will give them an idea of the types of activities you cannot perform in a work setting.

Now, here are excerpts below from another article on this site that will answer questions about what happens at the disability hearing. If you need assistance on your case, complete the contact/evaluation form and I will be in touch.

What gets asked at your Disability Hearing?

So, it’s my belief that the more you know about how things may and can go in an NC disability hearing, the more prepared and mentally comfortable you may be. So here’s the list:

1 -The North Carolina disability judge (ALJ, or administrative law judge) will begin the hearing by identifying him or herself, and will then ask a series of question to identify you, the claimant. They will ask your name, age, weight, height, level of education, what kind of home you live in, whether you have minor-age children, when you last worked, and the type of work you did.

More importantly, the judge will ask you what your past work required of you. Meaning what you did on the job on a normal day. They will likewise ask you what do at home on a normal day.

Why do they ask you these questions? First, to get an idea of whether you can actually go back to one of your past jobs. Secondly, to get an idea of what you can still do, or have difficulty doing. For example, if you have back or knee issues, or COPD, you may have trouble grocery shopping. You might have to be dropped off at the front of a store because you can’t walk more than a few minutes due to shortness of breath or pain. If you have issues with your hands or arms or shoulders, you may be unable to pick up items and place them into the cart.

So…it is very important that you accurately describe your physical and/or mental limitations at the hearing. Here’s something else. When you first apply for disability, you are asked to complete a function report. Too many individuals do not pay attention to filling this form out properly, but this is really a claimant’s first opportunity to tell Social Security about their various limitations, so it should be handled seriously. Which means you should provide a substantial amount of detail on the form versus just “wingin” it.

Important: fill out the function report completely, mention your limitations when you describe your daily activities, and do not pull any punches when it comes to listing the things you have trouble doing, such as sitting, standing, walking, lifting, reaching, stooping, crouching, etc.

2 – The judge at the disability hearing will allow the person who represents you to make an opening statement. This statement is very important to your case and presents an excellent example of why you should not represent yourself. This is the point at which it may be pointed out how your prior denials were made, why those denials were wrong, why your medical evidence shows that you meet the rules to qualify for disability benefits, and why you cannot return to your past work or do any other kind of work. A person representing themselves will simply not know how to do this.

3 – The judge may have a vocational expert present. Usually, they do. Their purpose is to provide commentary on your past work and whether, with your limitations, you would be able to return to this, or, again, do other work. After the VE does this, your representative is given the opportunity to cross examine the VE. Again, this is not something an unrepresented person will know how to do.

4 – The judge may ask you about your past work, what you did, and also what you do on a normal day. Once more, this is to get an idea of what you are currently capable of, and whether you can return to work. A person who is unrepresented may tend to ramble, veer off into tangents, get confused, or perhaps not even remember properly. This is enough to do if you consider that sometimes we, as people, will forget what we are shopping for once we enter a store.

And it is yet another example of why a person should be represented at a hearing. Because a disability representative will typically do a pre-hearing consultation to get you ready for your hearing. This can include practive questioning, go over the demands of past jobs, going over the medical history, and such.