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. Effective Hearing Tactics – What Administrative Law Judges Want You to Know
3. Mental Impairment Claims
4. First Steps and the Search for Claim-Supporting Evidence
5. Avoiding Ethical Pitfalls
6. Coordinating SSDI with Workers' Comp and Other Benefits and Income Sources
7. Strategies for the Appeals Council and Federal District Court

Continuing Education Credits:   

* denotes specialty credits

OVERVIEW OF THE LAW, OPERATING TERMS AND PROCEDURE
8:30 - 9:15, Anna I. Cortez

• 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)

EFFECTIVE HEARING TACTICS - WHAT ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGES WANT YOU TO KNOW
9:15 - 10:15, Hon. Diane Townsend-Anderson

• 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

MENTAL IMPAIRMENT CLAIMS
10:30 - 11:30, Anna I. Cortez

• 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)

FIRST STEPS AND THE SEARCH FOR CLAIM-SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
11:30 - 12:30, Frank W. Levin

• 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

AVOIDING ETHICAL PITFALLS
1:30 - 2:30, Andrew Kinney

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

COORDINATION OF SSDI WITH WORKERS' COMP AND OTHER BENEFITS AND INCOME SOURCES
2:45 - 3:30, Andrew E. Kline

• 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

STRATEGIES FOR THE APPEALS COUNCIL AND FEDERAL DISTRICT COURT
3:30 - 4:30, Edward C. Olson

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

ANNA I. CORTEZ is an attorney at Midwest Disability, where she practices in the area of Social Security disability. Ms. Cortez represents adults and children in claims at administrative hearings before the Social Security Administration's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review. She earned her B.A. degree from Mount Mary College, her M.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and her J.D. degree from William Mitchell College of Law. Ms. Cortez is a member of the Minnesota State and Anoka County bar associations. She is also an investigator for the 21st District Ethics Committee.

ANDREW KINNEY is an attorney with the Minneapolis law firm of Hoglund, Chwialkowski & Mrozik, PLLC. Mr. Kinney began practicing Social Security disability law in 1992. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame and Marquette Law School. Mr. Kinney is licensed to practice in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio and New York. He has spoken on Social Security topics for the Minnesota Continuing Legal Education, Legal Aid Society, Minnesota Workforce Centers, University of Minnesota, and the Minnesota State Bar Association. Mr. Kinney has also presented at the last three national conferences of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives, focusing on hearing tactics and cross-examination skills, and is a former trustee on the board of this national organization. Mr. Kinney is currently a chair of the Minnesota State Bar Association's inaugural Social Security Disability Law section, and is also a member of the state bar's Legislative Committee. He maintains a Social Security law blog and video logs at hoglundlaw.com.  

ANDREW E. KLINE founded the law firm of Andrew E. Kline, Attorney at Law, in 1981. The firm specializes in Social Security disability law, as well as the interaction between Social Security disability benefits and workers' compensation benefits. Prior to his entry into private practice, Mr. Kline was an attorney advisor for Social Security's Office of Hearings and Appeals for more than four years, and has 34 years of experience in the Social Security disability field. He earned his B.A. degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his J.D. degree from the University of Minnesota Law School. Mr. Kline is a sustaining member of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives.

FRANK W. LEVIN is a Minneapolis lawyer. He limits his law practice to Social Security disability insurance (SSDI) and supplemental security income (SSI) cases. Mr. Levin has worked in this field for more than 30 years. He handled his first disability case when his late wife, Joanne, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) and had to stop working. He has represented claimants with diseases ranging from absence (petit mal) seizures to x-linked icthyosis. Mr. Levin is a founding member of Disability Attorneys of Minnesota and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives (NOSSCR). He has been a frequent presenter at national, regional, state and local conferences of NOSSCR, the MS Society, the Lupus Foundation, the Brain Injury Association, the Epilepsy Foundation and other disability advocacy groups.

HON. DIANE TOWNSEND-ANDERSON was appointed hearing office chief judge of the Minneapolis Hearing Office in March of 1999, having previously served 2 years as a line judge in the Chicago South office. Judge Townsend-Anderson has been an instructor for both new judges and hearing office chief judges. She served as chair of the Hearing Process Improvement Evaluation Workgroup, which visited more than 30 hearing offices across the country. In 2004 she became the president of the Association of Hearing Office Chief Judges (AHOCJ) and served on the national Labor-Relations and Health & Safety committees. Judge Townsend-Anderson was previously a state of Minnesota administrative law judge, senior partner of a law firm, general counsel for hospitals and a felony prosecutor. Prior to her legal career, she established and ran an advertising company for several years. Since 1990, Judge Townsend-Anderson has served on a number of Boards of Directors and currently is on the Federal Executive Board. She has taught at the University's of Augsburg and Mankato in Minnesota, and at numerous Continuing Legal Education seminars. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, where she received a B.A. degree, and she earned her J.D. degree from Hamline University.

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