35-year-old Disability Insurance Benefits and supplemental Security Income benefits claim were denied at initial and reconsideration with a light residual functional capacity and mild to moderate mental health limits.
This case had two medical experts – a neurologist and a psychiatrist. In addition, this is a very challenging client as the client tends to get anxious and very confrontational with others, even people trying to help him. Fortunately, at this hearing the Medical Expert who specializes in neurology did opine the claimant equaled the social security Listing 1.15 which is used to document a back impairment is causing compromise of a nerve root.
This listing was applied retroactively to the claimants Alleged Onset Date. The psychiatric Medical Expert was much less helpful and opined the claimant suffered from only mild to moderate limitations. With expertise cross examination, counsel for the plaintiff was able to have this psychiatrist state that despite these limitations only being mild to moderate, the claimant would miss multiple days a month making him unable to successfully maintain employability.
After a long hearing with 2 medical experts the end result was the ALJ will approve this case back to Alleged Onset Date (AOD).