State Agency Doctors

Thursday, February 20th, 2020

Since the last Century, the case law in Social Security Disability (“SSD”) appeals has been crystal clear – the opinions of doctors “who have not personally examined the claimant deserve little weight.” Nonetheless, when an administrative law judge (“ALJ”) wants to deny a case, they frequently rely on the opinion of the non-examining State agency medical consultant as the basis for the decision.

We represent a 57 year old former controller from Howard Beach with Parkinson’s disease. ALJ Pecoraro, who approved the claimant’s SSD application today, stated that the opinions of the non-examining State agency medical consultants were not persuasive. The ALJ reasoned that because additional evidence was produced after the consultants’ document review, their opinions were not based upon a complete record, and therefore were of little probative value.

As intimated above, many ALJs are predisposed to deny SSD claims. You can learn if an ALJ is predisposed to deny your SSD claim by checking out their approval rate here. An ALJ with a low approval rate that is predisposed to deny your SSD claim would have found that the opinions of the non-examining State agency medical consultants were persuasive, despite the law clearly being to the contrary.

Knowing the Social Security case law is critical to preparing your claim, and appealing it all the way to federal court if necessary. When retaining a disability attorney to handle your SSD claim, be sure to ask them about the extent of their experience litigating these matters. Please call my office staff for a free phone consultation. We have offices conveniently located on Long Island in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

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