In my 30 years of experience representing claimants in social security disability hearings, I have concluded there are five factors that are significant in almost every case. These are the factors one should consider when applying for disability.

SERIOUS IMPAIRMENT: You cannot get disability for a hangnail. Your impairment must seriously affect your ability to work. It must be an impairment In my 30 years of practice, I have always found Social Security Judges to be very sympathetic to a claimant with a serious impairment such as lupus or cancer.

YOUR AGE: It is best to be 55 years old or older when applying for disability. The system favors the older applicant. On the other hand if you are under 50 years of age you may have to show you cannot do any job that exists in the national economy. It does not take much physical ability to be a greeter at a Walmart store or a security monitor watcher. If you are under age 50 you will have to show you cannot do those types of jobs.

YOUR OWN DOCTOR'S OPINION: Social Security has a rule that can help most applicants. That rule says if your doctor's opinion is well reasoned and based on many clinical visits by you over a period of time then his/her opinion can be granted "controlling weight" in your case. Thus, if your doctor supports your claim, then you have a great chance to win your case. In my experience, 100% support by the claimant's own doctor is crucial to success in a claim for disability. I have had a number of cases where the United States District Court has reversed a Social Security Administrative Law Judge precisely because the Social Security Judge did not give enough weight to the opinion of the claimant's own doctor.

YOUR SKILL AND EDUCATIONAL LEVEL: Unfortunately, the more education you have and the more skills you have the harder it is going to be to win a disability case. For example, even if you are over 55 years of age and have a serious orthopaedic impairment if you still can do some sort of clerical work at a desk, you probably will not be found to be disabled. This is especially true if your past skills and education indicate you can do clerical work. However, all is not lost if you can show your impairment prevents you from "sitting" to do clerical work or if your impairment prevents you from the very light repetitive work required of clerical work.

THE OPINION OF A SPECIALIST: If you have an impairment such as lupus, some type of cancer, or fibromyalgia, the opinion of your family doctor (although beneficial) will probably not carry the day. What you need is the support of a specialist who treats the particular impairment you have. For example, with fibromyalgia you would need to consult a specialist in arthritis or rheumatology. He or she would at a minimum have to say your fibromyalgia met the American College of Rheumatology diagnostic criteria for the disease. For cancer, you probably need the opinion of an oncologist.

SUMMARY, In my 30 years of practice and in doing over 1,000 hearings I have found the above five factors to be the most important elements of a winning disability case. However, even knowing these factors, it is no substitute for not contacting an experienced Social Security Disability Lawyer.

Copyright 2006, Jerry Lutkenhaus. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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