Top 8 Ways to Get Approved for Social Security Disability

[Music] hi there this is Jonathan Ginsberg I'm a social security disability attorney and today I'd like to talk to you about uh my list of the top eight ways you can improve your chances of getting approved for Social Security disability this is not an exclusive list this is not something that comes from Social Security this is just reflective of my own experience in getting people approved for disability cases over the last 20-some years so here's my top eight list first and foremost is you've got to have medical treatment ideally without any gaps in treatment in this current climate I'm recording this in 2017 disability judges expect to see a comprehensive unbroken medical record you cannot have gaps of 8 months a year 18 months 2 years where you have not gone to the doctor even if you have a condition that is permanent and chronic judges expect to see you go to the doctor so a strong consistent medical record without any gaps is really really important number two your medical condition should be based on a firm diagnosis it's very difficult to win disability benefits when your medical condition is sort of this wishy-washy a lot of different types of things it's much better to be a firm diagnosis you have spinal stenosis you have um chronic Venus insufficiency you have pulmonary function disease it's much better to have a label on your condition than to have a number of various conditions that no one really knows what it is that by the way is why conditions like fibromyalgia and CRPS are difficult to win because they're sort of diagnoses of Last Resorts and judges are much more comfortable um awarding benefits on firm diagnosis where there are objective tests for those diagn nois for a a spinal cenosis they can do an MRI for chronic V Venus insufficiency and ultrasound um for certain other conditions nerve conduction studies or em or emgs or CT scans so anything that's subject to an U to some sort of objective medical test that's going to help obviously mental health conditions don't fit that bill but there are certain tests that psychologists and psychiatrist can do to make a diagnosis about a particular a mental health condition like schizophrenia depression anxiety and so forth so the more specific the diagnosis I think the better um number three is always take your medications as prescribed and adhere to what your doctor tells you um it's not good when a medical record says that my client has not been compliant with medical treatment or my client's not taking medications the judge will assume that you not being compliant or you're not taking medications because you really weren't that bad off so they expect you judges expect you to be fully compliant uh with your medical condition and if you're having bad side effects for example with medications let your doctor know um don't simply stop taking the medication never tell the doctor about the side effect we need to have a medical record that reflects all that type of thing and it's really important that you do that um number four is we need to have your medical information your medical condition translated into work capacity limitations which is the language Social Security speaks that means you need to get your doctor to fill out a functional capacity evaluation or to complete a narrative report that addresses your limitations uh that arise from your medical condition in terms of how that would impact you at a potential job that is the language Social Security speaks and they understand work capacity so you need a doctor who will cooperate cooperate with you in that regard if you don't have a doctor who will cooperate you need to find another doctor because that's the language Social Security wants to hear um number five is before your hearing practice one of the things that I do with my clients is we spend probably i' say twice as much time three times as much time as the hearing is going to take practicing I'll go over questions we'll practice answers this is the best way to answer this is the most compelling way to do it it could take three or 4 hours but the important thing is when my client goes in to a hearing and a judge asks a question that's not the first time that person's heard my clients's heard that question you don't want to be in a situation where the judge says well how much can you lift and you say well I never thought about that I don't know not very much well that's not good you need people to say I can lift 7 to 10 lbs once or twice during the course of a day and I have to rest for 15 minutes thereafter or if I lift more than seven or eight pounds a gallon of milk um I'll be in bed for the rest of the day because of pain or I can lift it once but I I have the time I'll drop it whatever it is you need to have an answer prepared so that you can answer credibly and believably about your physical limitations um next is I would tell you uh not to go into your disability hearing Alone um people sometimes say well do I really need an attorney if my record's really strong here's the problem is the judges are are overworked they they go really fast these hearings last about 45 minutes they use a lot of acronyms aod DLI uh do uh the list goes on fce RFC these are all acronyms that that it's sort of a separate language that that disability judges and attorneys speak and you got 45 minutes in front of that judge you don't want to waste a lot of time trying to understand what's going on so one of the advantages of having an attorney is number one we will come up with a working theory of disability for your case that could be meal listing grid rule functional capacity we'll develop the strongest argument and here a lot of times I'll have a client with three or four different things or five or six different things I'm going to focus on the ones I think that are most most valuable for social security purposes which may be different than what my client thinks so it's really important to have professional guidance as to making the most of that 45 minute hearing and not to try to educate yourself on the fly when you're actually at the hearing you're going to frustrate the judge and a frustrated judge is going to probably say no so hearings you want to be really organized a prehearing brief is always is almost always very very helpful these are things that an attorney can do for you another thing which is really really crucial is that once you request a hearing which again could be you know a year or two before you actually go to your hearing during that year year and a half you where you're waiting you as the claimant or your attorney has the responsibility of getting upto-date medical records if you walk into a hearing and the last medical record is two years before and you say well yeah I've been to the doctor a bunch of times but those records aren't there uh you got a problem uh judge is going to probably deny the claim under some new rules that are going to go into effect in March of 2017 the record is going to close at the hearing so you don't want to have anything missing and one of the things an attorney is going to do is to make sure that medical record is updated so I would tell you um not to go in I think it's number six don't go in Alone number seven is you want to avoid even the whiff the suggestion that you are mingering or drug seeking uh judges hate people who use the medical services to feed a drug addiction whether it's prescription or not so if you uh go to see a pain doctor for example don't go to see another pain doctor and get pain medications for both those people judges will assume you're selling the medications that will destroy your credibility and it's more likely not you're going to lose your claim so don't have any evidence of drug seeking behavior and in fact you want to tell your doctor I don't want to be on these narcotic drugs um and let's find some other way to to treat my pain uh judges appreciate people who are trying to avoid uh the strong narcotic drugs that are out there nowadays and last I think number eight would be and I think this is really important this is something I emphasize to my clients a lot do not go in with the attitude of entitlement um we have to prove you're disabled you can't go in and say judge I know I'm disabled please pay me uh judges pick up on that they don't like people who feel that they are disabled already you want to go with the idea I'm a fighter I hate the idea of being disabled I don't want to be disabled I'd like to go back to work and I'm using this process only to uh get to to get whatever benefits I can financial and Medicare um so that I can get better and go back to work my goal is not to be on disability the rest of my life my goal is to get back to work and if the judge senses that's what you're all about not that you're that you're not you don't want to be on disability and take an early retirement uh for the rest of your life because you were disabled uh that's going to go a long long way to sort of subconsciously help the judge give you the benefit of the out and approve your claims so those are my top eight factors that I think are really important when it comes to trying to win a disability case you may have some other ones I'd be interested to hear that um any attorneys watching this if you have any other suggestions please let me know that as well we can uh certainly update this video at sometime in the future if you found this V video useful please give it a thumbs up on YouTube like it on Facebook subscribe to my YouTube channel like my Facebook page uh and if I can answer any questions for you please reach out to me directly this is John Jan Ginsburg wishing you the best thanks a lot hi this is Jonathan Ginsburg and I hope you found this video helpful if you'd like to know more about how to win your Social Security disability case I'd like to invite you to download my secrets to getting approved early survival kit that I created just for people like you currently I'm making the survival kit available at no cost and I encourage you to grab your copy now some of the topics I cover incl include how do I know if I have a case is it the right time for me to file my claim nine common mistakes that can Doom your case the three must have arguments you use to win your case and a topic that every disability claim wants to know how to avoid trick questions from the judge if you are a loved one need to win Social Security Disability Benefits you'll find the survival kit essential reading download your survival kit right now and at no cost just visit SSD anwers.com SLS survival and sign up it's that easy please act now and as always I wish you the [Music] best [Music]

Channel: Social Security Disability videos

Views: 611,127

Keywords: social security disability, disability attorneys, Jonathan Ginsberg, ssdi ssi, disability benefits, disability approval, win social security disability, ssdi hearing tips

Id: 9F-hfpwD6LY

Length: 11min 1sec (661 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 24 2017