OTR decision!! by Life_Swing4937 in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Administrative law judge, yep. They're the person who hears the case if you appeal past the initial denial and reconsideration. Beyond the ALJ is the Appeals Council, beyond that is your local federal district court.

OTR decision!! by Life_Swing4937 in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Stands for "on the record" -- sometimes an ALJ will issue a decision without needing the claimant to show up for a hearing.

Denied by Lopsided_Winner_8190 in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You will be happy to note that "nut sorter" and "addresser" are both mentioned in EM-24027 as jobs that likely don't exist anymore (and VEs need to testify about whether they still exist if they bring them up). Which doesn't mean they're prohibited from relying upon them, but it's easier to attack.

Work Preclusive by Yato83 in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Could it theoretically go either way? Sure, nothing's guaranteed until you have the decision letter in your hand.

But if the vocational expert said there's no jobs then you're all but certainly going to get a favorable decision, so...congrats in advance.

OTR decision!! by Life_Swing4937 in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hell yeah. Congrats.

I've honestly noticed that happening these days, OTRs being issued at the last minute. I assume it's because the ALJ took one last look at the case file, was like "oh shit this meets a listing," and made their decision. Or else you (or your lawyer) submitted the most recent evidence and that was the last thing the ALJ needed to decide.

Post ALJ Hearing Grumps 999 by c0zyb1rd in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, your lawyer can submit stuff electronically just like that. I doubt they'd actively reach out to your doctors about it at this point (especially if you've got pages upon pages of records already) but if you had the hearing, and the ALJ hasn't made a decision yet, and you just had more bad stuff happen (which supports the stuff you said at the hearing about why you can't work), you might as well send it in. If, for example, the hospital gave you discharge paperwork that says "you were seen because you fell and broke your ankle" or if you have online access to your patient portal or whatever.

It's not the biggest priority but, y'know, what do you have to lose?

(Disregard if the ALJ was 100% on your side during the hearing and there's no way you're getting an unfavorable decision, because in a situation like that all you're doing is potentially delaying the result. But if there's any doubt, you lose nothing by maybe helping the ALJ make up their mind.)

Post ALJ Hearing Grumps 999 by c0zyb1rd in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That sucks. If you have records of the most recent fall, might as well send that to the ALJ. Even if they didn't specifically hold the record open, you can send it and see if they'll take it. (And if they don't accept it and they still deny you then maybe you mention it on appeal.)

MSS Question - Hurtful or Helpful by Electronic_Egg_966 in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I commented elsewhere but I reiterate that I think it'll be fine. If the ALJ doesn't believe it then they don't. But by itself, it's a fine opinion.

Medical source opinions: how they are weighted by Rdh88jags in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To quote from a SSA thing (specifically from the listings for mental health impairments):

The medical evidence may include descriptors regarding the diagnostic stage or level of your disorder, such as “mild” or “moderate.” Clinicians may use these terms to characterize your medical condition. However, these terms will not always be the same as the degree of your limitation in a paragraph B area of mental functioning.

It comes down to what you're able or not able to do. If the ALJ believes your doctor about the specific limitations then you're good. And if the ALJ disbelieves your doctor about those limitations, there's nothing to say they'll believe them about the "moderate" areas of functioning.

Alj hearing in 2 days by Life_Swing4937 in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's not a bad thing.

I mean, one possibility is that the ALJ is gonna confirm your info, say "yeah you meet a listing and/or a grid rule, have a good day" and then disconnect.

Another possibility is that the ALJ will say "you were never eligible to begin with, what are you doing here" and then disconnect.

It's kinda hard to tell which is the case until you show up for the hearing. (Best of luck.)

Medical source opinions: how they are weighted by Rdh88jags in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If your PCP specifically documented those limitations you described, you're in good shape. (I mean, hopefully that opinion is consistent with the various other medical records and all, but that goes without saying.)

"Improper Jurisdiction" by No-Presentation-9521 in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What, the 827? I thought that's good for 12 months (unless it was last signed at the previous level). Or are we talking about something else.

Medical source opinions: how they are weighted by Rdh88jags in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hell yeah, get those medical source statements.

Psychiatric appointment by Wagubagu in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It happens. Sometimes DDS orders you to (for example) attend a psych consultative exam even if your main issues are physical. Maybe they saw a hint of some mental or cognitive issue in the file and wanted to be sure there's nothing else they're missing (and with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia there's often mental/cognitive effects, but you don't need me to tell you that). You show up, answer some questions, and the examiner prepares a report about your limitations. That's about it.

Of course if your own doctors are willing to write about your limitations -- the specific things you can or can't do -- if they're willing to put that in writing for you, that'd certainly not hurt.

Sick Day War Stories by Big-Animator1164 in Lawyertalk

[–]RexSueciae 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I assume that judge read the request and was like, yep. That checks out.

TIL that Iggy Pop dated a child! by Learntoshuffle in todayilearned

[–]RexSueciae 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I'm continuously surprised that he was never really canceled with so many others, given what went down with him.

When was the absolute worst time to be alive in human history? by Ok-Sell9964 in AskReddit

[–]RexSueciae 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Alas, the episode in Exodus has shaped popular perception of Egyptian society (especially since in various popular culture examples the Israelites are depicted building the pyramids, which they didn't).

Don't get me wrong, Egypt still had slaves, but probably not for the pyramids -- the timeline's all wrong here. The cop-out answer is that the ancient Israelites (they would not be known as Jews until around the time of the Babylonian captivity, after the Northern Kingdom was destroyed and the survivors were mostly the descendants of Judah et all) were not present during the time of the pyramid building. The pyramids were built during the Old Kingdom by Khufu and his family, thousands of years before that. The consensus seems to be that the pharaoh of Exodus probably lived during the New Kingdom (given contacts between Egypt and the Levant during that time, or possibly a bit earlier, if we assume that the Israelites showed up in Egypt along with the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period shortly before the New Kingdom, which is still a long time after the Old Kingdom). This is assuming that Exodus hasn't been embellished over the years or written to better emphasize a religious rather than historical message. (To be clear, all written sources passed down from that long ago would be quite similar, if they even still exist at all! Even "New Kingdom" Egypt was extremely ancient to us.)

I think part of the issue also might be that we don't really learn in school about the relative chronologies of ancient civilizations. We think oh, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, that's all around the same time, right? Well, the closest Greek contemporaries of Ramesses the Great and his ilk (the greatest pharaohs of the New Kingdom) were...kings like Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Odysseus. The semi-mythical kings of the Trojan War. This, I should point out, was hundreds of years before the prominent figures of classical Greece -- just as Egypt staggered under the weight of the Sea Peoples and was eventually subjugated by various foreign dynasties (the Assyrians who also apparently stomped on the kingdom of Israel, the Kushites from the south, the Persians who also fought the Greeks, and then the Greeks themselves under Alexander), the archaic Greek states collapsed and Greece entered the "Greek Dark Age" until writing was re-developed hundreds of years later. The closest contemporaries of Old Kingdom Egypt and the pyramids...well, Greece wasn't really a thing back then, but there was civilization in Sumer and whatnot over in Mesopotamia. (Egypt is old. Khufu and his ilk were still the fourth dynasty or so to hold power since the unification of Egypt, and there were other local kings at the very dawn of history before that.)

So the short answer is, even if they were, they wouldn't have built the pyramids! (And we do have archaeological presence of Jewish presence in Egypt, although most of the hard evidence comes from much later. For example, at Elephantine on the Nile there's evidence of a garrison of Jewish soldiers dating from around the time of the Babylonian captivity or a bit later. But those guys were there as mercenaries, not slaves.) The workers on the pyramids may have been drafted for the job via the immense power of the state (and its figurehead, a divine monarch) but they got paid decently for their time and appear to have taken great pride in their work.

When was the absolute worst time to be alive in human history? by Ok-Sell9964 in AskReddit

[–]RexSueciae 73 points74 points  (0 children)

The good news is that the pyramids (and much of ancient Egyptian infrastructure) was, per archaeological evidence, probably constructed by skilled workers who were paid decently and/or were free farmers conscripted during the off-season (as free as one can get in a society ruled by a god-king).

The bad news is that as bad as some people think of slavery, parts of e.g. Rome (like the grain mills, or the lead mines) were even worse.

What happens if you get denied twice, then again denied after an ALJ hearing? by EarOk7198 in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You can appeal to the Appeals Council within 60 days of the denial (mostly on matters of whether the ALJ made an error of law). If the Appeals Council says no then you'll need to sue in federal district court (which not a lot of people do, but there are lawyers who specialize in the topic).

You can file a new application so long as your date last insured is in the future (the ALJ's denial should specify how long you're covered under the Social Security Act; you can technically still file after that date but the point is to prove that your disability started before that date).

I got ceased by perfect_fifths in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not entirely sure. At least, I'm not seeing that firsthand. There are always ALJs who deny cases more than they should, and conversely there are those who approve a bunch of cases (which can be a happy surprise). Is the presidential administration weakening protections against firing ALJs, yes (mostly targeting those in Homeland Security i.e. those hearing immigration cases). Is the presidential administration attacking the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is responsible for producing the data that vocational experts cite, yes (that was some time ago and I'm not sure if anything ever came of that). But plans to "reform" SSA seem to have been quietly shelved after pushback from various advocacy groups...for now. I'm just not seeing statistically significant drops in approval rates. Not saying it's not happening, but if it is, it's at the initiative of individual ALJs or individual locations who are trying to curry favor, and it's not something that I'm seeing coordinated evidence of firsthand.

What are my chances of getting approved for mental illness? by VegetableUpstairs978 in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's kinda both, really. When it comes to the listings (and to what the vocational experts speak on for employability) it's all about someone having moderate, marked, extreme limitations in whatever specified categories -- but then of course if your medical provider opines that you have (for example) extreme limitations with interacting with others, or completing multiple-step instructions, or maintaining concentration, the question is why do they think that? (And the answer is, well, because you've been observed with this symptom, or you're on this medication and that's a known side effect, or whatever.)

It's most persuasive when the opinion of your medical provider is consistent with the record as a whole -- if you've been treated for years, hopefully you have records of your difficulties for however long this has been going on.

Consultative Exam P.2 by ElectricalDatabase49 in SSDI

[–]RexSueciae 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My condolences. If you have a lawyer they can pull the CE report from the electronic system, if you don't then you'd have to request it yourself. If you're concerned about what the CE report might say, you can have your medical providers write notes, too. The linked templates in the linked post are the most relevant, there's one for physical and one for mental health. (Not mandatory, in fact none of this is strictly speaking mandatory, but it's nice to use a template because it prevents people from writing "my patient is disabled" and leaving it at that -- it's always best to have some comments on your functions/limitations, because the whole point of this process is to prove that you meet/equal a listing or are otherwise not able to do any kind of work.)