Can Social Security Ignore a Federal Judge's Instructions About Your Disability Case?

 Posted on December 19, 2016 in Social Security Disability

It is not unusual for a person seeking Social Security Disability insurance benefits to appear before multiple hearings. Federal courts often order Social Security to reconsider an earlier denial of disability benefits based on an incorrect application of the law. Unfortunately, in many cases, Social Security does not get this message the first—or second or third—time around.

Disability Applicant Gets Fourth Hearing Following Social Security Misconduct

Indeed, one Illinois man recently will receive a fourth hearing before Social Security after a federal judge—for the third time—reversed the agency's denial of benefits. Not surprisingly, the judge, in this third appeal, said the main problem was that Social Security failed to follow the court's orders from the prior appeals.

The applicant's saga began nearly 10 years ago when he sustained a back injury at work. The injury produced chronic pain. Over the next year, a neurosurgeon regularly assessed and treated the applicant. The neurosurgeon concluded the applicant was “unemployable and disabled” and suggested spinal fusion surgery. Other physicians disputed the surgery diagnosis, but they confirmed the applicant suffered from severe chronic pain.

As noted above, Social Security has denied the applicant's claim for disability benefits on three prior occasions. After the second denial, a U.S. district judge said Social Security's administrative law judge (ALJ) failed to properly explain her decision to essentially ignore the medical opinion of the applicant's neurosurgeon that he was disabled. Instead, the ALJ relied on medical testimony from two other doctors who only saw the applicant once and did not have the same extended treatment history as the neurosurgeon. At the third hearing, the ALJ was ordered to give the neurosurgeon's testimony “substantial, if not controlling weight.”

Apparently, the ALJ did not do that. Instead, as a federal magistrate held in what is now the third order remanding the applicant's case to Social Security, the ALJ “took issue with” the judge's findings and proceeded to make “assumptions not grounded in fact and not supported by the record.” In short, the magistrate said the ALJ largely repeated her earlier decision that was rejected by the judge and that still contained “faulty credibility logic” with respect to the testimony of both the neurosurgeon and the applicant.

The magistrate explained that Social Security may not ignore a federal court's instructions with respect to a disability case. Here, the judge in the second appeal told the ALJ to afford the neurosurgeon's testimony significant weight. This instruction was not a suggestion. It became, in the magistrate's words, the “law of the case.” And “[w]ithout a compelling reason, the ALJ was not at liberty to disagree with the Court and submit the same deficient credibility analysis.”

You Need an Illinois Social Security Disability Attorney

Dealing with a disability is hard enough. Applying for disability benefits when Social Security has a long history of ignoring the law only makes things worse. That is why you need an experienced Chicago disability benefits lawyer on your side. Contact the offices of Pearson Disability Law, LLC, if you need to schedule a consultation with an attorney today.

Source:

https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8435332174475013765&hl=en&as_sdt=6,47