VE Rebuttal

Monday, March 18th, 2024

A Washington Post article from last year unveiled how administrative law judges (“ALJs”) rely on patently erroneous and obsolete occupational information to deny Social Security Disability (“SSD”) applications. ALJs asked Larry Underwood to serve as a vocational expert (“VE”) for a quarter century. Mr. Underwood told the Washington Post that:

“I realized that a lot of vocational experts, including myself, have been giving false testimony for years…The numbers are no accurate. I decided I can’t do that anymore.”

Since Social Security has neglected to state what special knowledge, experience, or training is required to qualify as a VE, a VE is more accurately denominated as vocational witness (“VW”). Despite the fact that a proper cross examination of a VW will reveal that their responses to an ALJ are unsupportable, most ALJ’s accept the VW’s testimony anyway in order to deny SSD benefits. When it appears that an ALJ will disregard testimony during cross examination of a VW, the claimant should retain a truly independent VW to rebut the Social Security VW.

I represent a 36 year old from East Northport with numerous orthopedic impairments, who had worked as a police officer. The VW testified that the claimant could perform occupations that courts have ruled are obsolete. Nonetheless, the ALJ was prepared to accept the VW’s testimony, but my cross examination of the VW could not be completed due to time constraints. The ALJ stated that he would schedule a supplemental hearing, but I could submit a brief instead to expedite a decision.

I submitted a vocational report from an independent VW, which supported my arguments about that the occupations the Social Security VW had cited were obsolete. Today, a week before the hearing, the ALJ agreed, and issued a fully favorable OTR.

My claimant is so grateful that I was able to obtain the OTR, and that she did not have to wait for another hearing. It is important if you plan on applying for SSD, that you retain a disability attorney, like myself, who has years of experience working with Social Security, and knows the system inside and out.

My office offers phone consultations for anyone thinking of applying, or has already applied, for SSD.

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