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    We Represent People With:

  • Physical Disabilities and Impairments, Psychiatric and Mental Disorders, Bipolar, PTSD, Deafness, Blindness, HIV/Aids, Cancer, Epilepsy, Schizophrenia, Depression, Mental Retardation, Cerebral palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Herniated Disk, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Arthritis, Stroke, Seizures, Hepatitis, Heart and Lung disease, Meniere's Disease, Crohn's Disease, Colitis, L.B.S., Myasthenia Gravis, Severe Headaches and Sleep Disorders, Amputation, Vocational Disabilities, MRSA who have wrongfully been denied their benefits.
Home :: FAQ :: Physicians Issues and Answers

What if a claimant has good days and bad days, does that come into play in a Social Security disability case?

Yes.  The judge will consider testimony and opinions from a treating physician if the attorney gets these opinions into evidence.  Claimants will have good and bad days, so whether a claimant will have good days and bad ones is an important consideration especially if the treating physician can corroborate this based on the claimant’s presentation and clinical appearances over time.  We ask our reporting physician to opine that the Claimant’s impairments are likely to produce “good days” and “bad days” and estimate, on the average, that the Claimant would likely be absent from work as a result of the impairments or treatment. The Claimant’s number of absences due to the impairment and treatment is an important consideration for the judge, as “Disability” is a vocational determination and unfortunately, not a medical one. If a claimant is absent two or more days per month due to medically, psychiatrically related issues or a need for treatment, two days or more is not therefore vocationally within standard industrial tolerances, which on the average has been traditionally once but fewer than twice per month.

A reporting physician who also describes other limitations that would affect the Claimant's ability to work at a regular job on a sustained basis is very helpful to our cases.

Finally, since your date of disability must be supported by competent medical evidence of record and objective findings of record, we find it helpful for a physician to further opine as to the earliest date that the description of symptoms and limitations in the completed questionnaire would apply, since that will help establish the date the claimant’s symptoms were so severe, he would be entitled to an administrative determination of being “Disabled”.