How to prepare for a Disability Hearing

If you have filed an application for either social security disability or ssi, have been denied, and now need to have your case heard by a federal administrative law judge, you will certainly want to prepare before your disability hearing date comes around.

But how do you prepare for an ssi or ssd disability hearing? Well, this consider first how far off your hearing date is. The time required to get a hearing can be very extensive. That is, if you file a "request for hearing before an administrative law judge" and send it in to the social security office, that office will have to transfer your file to the Office of Hearings and Appeals that handles your jurisdiction. "Which" hearing office your case winds up at will probably determine, to a great extent, how long it will take for your case to be scheduled for a hearing. Why is the case? Simply because different different disability hearing offices serve different populations and, consequently, may have larger or smaller backlogs to contend. Unfortunately, you can't do anything about which hearing office will handle your hearing, just as you are allowed no input into which administrative law judge will eventually hear your case.

The general rule is something akin to this, however: once you request a social security disability or ssi hearing, you can probably expect, in most cases, to wait at least a year before a hearing date is granted. In some parts of the country, the wait is close to two years, so, in this regard, a wait time of a year, though bad, is not the absolute worst case scenario.

But, because in any scenario, it will take a number months to get a disability hearing scheduled...there is really little for you to do with regard to preparing for a hearing. Probably the best advice is simply this: if you have access to medical care, keep going. Because the decision that will be made on your ssd or ssi claim will be based on what's in your medical records. And the more your medical history is documented, the better.

Now, on the other hand, if you have requested a hearing for ssi or ssd and have had some indication that your hearing date may be approaching soon...you should do exactly the same thing. Yes, that's right. Keep going to the doctor periodically. Because as important as your cumulative medical record is, it is even more important for a disabilty judge to see that your condition is disabling currently, as in "the here and now". Without recent evidence on which to decide your claim (no older than 2 months),it will be very difficult for an administrative law judge to conclude that you are, in fact, disabled.

Maintaining regular medical treatment will be one of the best ways for you to prepare for your hearing. However, preparing for your hearing doesn't stop there. To win your case, you would be advised to get representation before your hearing, simply because very few administrative law judges will give you the time of day if you dare to show up without representation. Remember the old adage "He who represents himself has a fool for an attorney"? That also applies to disability hearings simply because judges (who are also attorneys) preside over them.

Getting a disability lawyer is one of the best ways to prepare for your hearing. But adequately preparing for you hearing also means obtaining a social security attorney prior to the hearing date. Ideally, you should get a lawyer at least two months prior to your ssd or ssi hearing so the lawyer will have plenty of time to prepare, i.e. gather your medical records, make copies of them, send copies to the judge handling your case, and read them himself.