Does Social Security Ignore Court Orders in Disability Cases?

 Posted on August 23, 2016 in Denied Social Security Benefits

Social Security Disability claims often take years to resolve. It does not help matters any when Social Security officials ignore directives from federal courts to reconsider a prior erroneous decision to deny an applicant benefits. Unfortunately, this is a problem that many disability applicants continue to face in Illinois and throughout the country.

Chicago Appeals Court Orders Third Hearing for Applicant With Severe Depression

To illustrate how serious this problem has become, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago recently admonished Social Security for failing to follow one of its prior decisions in a disability case that started more than 12 years ago. This particular case comes from Indiana, but the Seventh Circuit has jurisdiction over all disability cases from Illinois as well, making this decision pertinent to anyone living in this state.

The applicant, in this case, suffers from a number of physical and mental impairments. Social Security and the applicant agreed that her physical impairments limit her, at best, to performing “sedentary” work. The disagreement is over whether her mental impairments—specifically, depression—prevent her from working at all.

According to the applicant, she has suffered from depression since before 2004, when she first sought Social Security disability benefits. During a hearing before a Social Security administrative law judge (ALJ) in 2006, the applicant “testified that she thinks frequently of suicide, sleeps for days at a time, rarely leaves home, and skips social activities that she once enjoyed.” Nonetheless, the ALJ found the applicant was not disabled, relying on the testimony of a vocational expert who said could still perform certain types of sedentary jobs despite her depression.

In 2010, the Seventh Circuit reversed the ALJ’s decision and returned the case to Social Security for reconsideration. At the time, the court said the ALJ “should have included [the applicant’s] moderate limitation on concentration, persistence, and pace” in considering her ability to work. The court also noted the ALJ ignored testimony from a medical expert who said the applicant was limited in “her ability to accept instructions and criticism from supervisors.”

Social Security waited nearly two years to reconsider the applicant’s case. In the interim, the applicant was medically diagnosed with “severe depression.” But after a second hearing, a new ALJ again determined the applicant was not disabled and denied her claim for benefits.

Once again, the Seventh Circuit reversed. Among other things, the court rejected Social Security’s argument that severe depression should not be considered a “disability” in the first place. The Seventh Circuit noted that no court in the United States has ever adopted such an argument in a disability case.

More to the point, the Seventh Circuit said Social Security simply ignored its instructions in 2010 to consider the effects of the applicant’s depression on her “concentration, persistence, and pace.” Social Security admitted it failed to follow the court’s instructions but insisted it would not have made a difference in its final decision. Not surprisingly, the Seventh Circuit did not accept that excuse. As the court noted, the applicant’s depression is worse now than it was when she first applied for disability benefits 12 years ago. Accordingly, the court ordered Social Security to consider the woman’s application for a third time.

Do You Need an Illinois Social Security Disability Attorney?

This case is not as extreme as it might sound. Even under the best of circumstances, an applicant may wait several years to receive a favorable decision regarding disability benefits. This is why you should never attempt to deal with Social Security on your own. An experienced Chicago disability benefits lawyer can help. Contact Pearson Disability Law, LLC, to speak with an attorney right away about your case.

Source:

http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2016/D08-09/C:15-2567:J:Manion:aut:T:fnOp:N:1808062:S:0