Get everything you'll need to succeed in a disability claim with an insightful overview of the laws, definitions, procedures, and tactics involved in researching and proving impairments. This course will walk you through the major steps of the claim procedure and offer time-tested methods for selecting cases, presenting them with the SSA and coordinating SSDI with claimants' other sources of income. Build a solid foundation for your practice – order today!

1. Overview of the Law, Operating Terms and Procedure
2. First Steps and the Search for Claim-Supporting Evidence
3. Mental Impairment Claims
4. Effective Hearing Tactics – What Administrative Law Judges Want You to Know
5. Strategies for the Appeals Council and Federal District Court
6. Avoiding Ethical Pitfalls
7. Handling Changes in Benefits
8. Coordinating SSDI with Workers' Comp and Other Benefits and Income Sources
9. Attorneys' Fees – Sources and Methods of Recovery

OVERVIEW OF THE LAW, OPERATING TERMS AND PROCEDURE
8:30 - 9:10, Barbara Samuels

• Key Term Definitions and Abbreviations
• Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) vs. Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
• Eligibility Rules: Medical vs. Nonmedical Requirements
• How Disability is Measured – The Grids and Residual Functional Capacity
• Governing Law (POMS, HALLEX, SSRs, ARs, Case Law, CFR and SS Act)
• SSDI Claim Procedural Steps (Initial Claim, Local SSA Office Review, Determination, Reconsideration, Appeal, ODAR ALJ Hearing, Appeals Counsel, Civil Action in U.S. District Court)

FIRST STEPS AND THE SEARCH FOR CLAIM-SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
9:10 - 9:55, Daniel A. Webb

• Client Intake and Questionnaire – Looking for Conflicting Information in the Client's File
• Claim Evaluation - Red Flags to Look out for
• The Five (or Three) Steps of the Sequential Evaluation
• Reopening a Prior Application – How Far Back Can You Go?
• SSA/ODAR Communications (Including Specific Forms to Complete and SSA Response to Case Backlog)
• Difference in Evaluating Physical vs. Mental Claims
• Obtaining Case Supporting Documentation
• Determining the Onset of Disability (Including Date Last Insured)
• Proving Pain
• Medical History and Treating Doctors' Opinions
• Employment History
• Functional Exertional and Non-Exertional Limitations
• Daily Activity Diaries
• Special Considerations in Child Disability Claims

MENTAL IMPAIRMENT CLAIMS
10:10 - 10:50, Barbara Samuels

• Should You Survey Listing 12.00 or Focus on One Particular Listing?
• Personality Disorders – Are They Real, How Can You Prove Your Case?
• Can Your Client Meet Listing 12.08?
• Faking or Response Distortion in Personality Assessment
• Intelligence Quotient (IQ) – Can You Prove the Client's Listing IQ?
• Social Security Listing of Impairment: 12.05
• What Limitations Does a Low IQ Cause?
• Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF)
• Changes in the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual (DSM-5)

EFFECTIVE HEARING TACTICS - WHAT ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGES WANT YOU TO KNOW
10:50 - 11:30, Barbara Samuels and Fritzie M. Vammen

• Preparation
• Pre-Hearing Briefs and Other Submissions
• Amended Onset Dates and Wages Recorded after Onset Date
• Effective Exhibits
• Direct Examination of the Claimant
• Cross-Examining Medical and Vocational Experts

STRATEGIES FOR THE APPEALS COUNCIL AND FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT
11:30 - 12:15, Fritzie M. Vammen

• Procedure
• Effective Arguments
• Brief Writing Tactics
• Timing Considerations

AVOIDING ETHICAL PITFALLS
1:15 - 2:15, Daniel A. Webb

• Judicial Misconduct
• Representative Misconduct
• Client Misconduct
• Guarding Confidentiality
• Addressing Negative Evidence

HANDLING CHANGES IN BENEFITS
2:30 - 3:10, Barbara Samuels

• Death of the Claimant during Litigation
• Representative Payees
• Benefits Modification Based on Rate of Recovery
• Return to Work Considerations

COORDINATION OF SSDI WITH WORKERS' COMP AND OTHER BENEFITS AND INCOME SOURCES
3:10 - 4:00, Daniel A. Webb

• With Workers' Compensation
• Disability Definition in Workers' Comp vs. SSDI
• What the Offset Applied to and How Much is Calculated
• “Average Current Earnings” – Exclusions from Offset Formula
• Changes in the Amount of Workers' Compensation
• Different Impairments can Cause the Same Disability
• “Periodic” Benefits
• Overpayments of SSDIB
• Sharing of Evidence
• With a Personal Injury Settlement
• With Trust Distributions and Other Sources of Income
• The Effect of SSD/SSI Receipt on Medicaid Eligibility
• Why File for SSDI and Social Security Retirement at the Same Time
• Is the Claimant Applying for Unemployment Benefits too?
• Veteran's Service-Connected Disability, Non-Service Disability and/or SSDI and SSI

ATTORNEYS' FEES – SOURCES AND METHODS OF RECOVERY
4:00 - 4:40, Daniel A. Webb

• From Federal Government
• From the Back Due Benefits
• Fee Petition
• Fee Agreement – When Can You Get More than the Fee Cap?
• In a Partially Favorable Ruling Case
• Pursuing Unpaid Fees
• Fees in Federal Court
• Seeking Fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA)

BARBARA SAMUELS is a sole practitioner and has been a Social Security and SSI specialist for 35 years. She is a longtime member, and past board member, of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives (NOSSCR), the American Bar Association and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Ms. Samuels is the author of Social Security Disability Claims: Practice and Procedures, 2nd Edition, (4 volumes), first published by West (now Thomson/Reuters) Publishing in 1994, which she revises and supplements annually. She is licensed to practice law in Illinois, New York and Arkansas. Ms. Samuels earned her B.A. degree from Antioch College and her J.D. degree from Northwestern University School of Law.

FRITZIE M. VAMMEN is a sole practitioner in Conway, Arkansas. Ms. Vammen practices primarily in Social Security disability law. As a former law clerk for the U.S. Magistrate for the Western District of Arkansas, she drafted federal court decisions on Social Security disability appeals. Ms. Vammen is a member of the American Bar Association, the Arkansas Bar Association, National Organization of Veterans Advocates, Inc. (NOVA), and is a sustaining member of the National Organization of Social Security Claimant's Representatives (NOSSCR). Ms. Vammen earned her bachelor's and juris doctorate degrees from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

DANIEL A. WEBB is a sole practitioner in Little Rock, Arkansas. He has a general practice with a substantial amount of his time devoted to Social Security cases. Mr. Webb also practices in the areas of business formation and entity selection, probate, personal injury, domestic relations and criminal law. He earned his B.A. degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and his J.D. degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law School. Mr. Webb was licensed to practice law in 2000 and started his own practice in 2001. He is a member of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association and the Arkansas Bar Association.

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