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
5. Strategies for the Appeals Council
6. Avoiding Ethical Pitfalls
7. Coordinating SSDI with Workers' Comp and Other Benefits and Income Sources
8. Attorneys' Fees – Sources and Methods of Recovery

OVERVIEW OF THE LAW, OPERATING TERMS AND PROCEDURE
8:30 - 9:30, Bob Richardson

• 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
9:30 - 10:15, Tabytha Kuykendall

• 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
10:30 - 11:30, Lourdes Flores

• 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
11:30 - 12:15, Tabytha Kuykendall

• 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
1:15 - 2:00, Susan L. Carpenter

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

AVOIDING ETHICAL PITFALLS
2:00 - 3:00, Camille K. Walker

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

COORDINATION OF SSDI WITH WORKERS' COMP AND OTHER BENEFITS AND INCOME SOURCES
3:15 - 4:00, Susan L. Carpenter

• With Workers' Compensation
• Disability Definition in Workers' Comp vs. SSDI
• Different Impairments can Cause the Same Disability
• Sharing of Evidence
• 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, Susan L. Carpenter

• 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)

SUSAN L. CARPENTER is in private practice in Blanco, Texas, covering the entire state of Texas with limited practice in other states. She is currently president of the Fifth Circuit Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (FOSSCR). She is also a sustaining member of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR). Ms. Carpenter is a graduate of Mercer Law School, Macon, Georgia, 1997. She is licensed to practice in Georgia and Texas. Ms. Carpenter has practiced extensively in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as U.S. District Courts in Texas and Georgia. She has also been admitted to the Supreme Courts of Texas and Georgia. Her practice areas are Social Security Disability and Veterans Disability, exclusively.

LOURDES FLORES is a paralegal and team manager of the Mental Health Legal Team with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, where she specializes in representing claimants in social security hearings. Ms. Flores has worked with TRLA (formerly Legal Aid of Central Texas) since 1982. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky. Ms. Flores has served as a trainer to the local pro bono program in Austin, Texas, The Statewide Poverty Law Conference, and FOSSCR training. She has also served as a trainer for the Joint Criminal Justice and Mental Health Conference. She has worked with many of the MHMR programs to train their psychiatrists and caseworkers on documentation and the social security appeal process. Her focus has been on representing individuals with mental health and cognitive impairments in their social security administrative hearings. Ms. Flores is a task force member of Austin Travis County Jail Diversion and ECHO housing workgroup. These task forces seek to ease the transition from prison to the community for people with mental disabilities.

TABYTHA KUYKENDALL is a lawyer and owner of Kuykendall Law Firm. She earned her B.S. degree from Texas Wesleyan University and her J.D. degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School. Ms. Kuykendall is licensed to practice law in Texas, and is a member of the State Bar of Texas and American Bar Association. She is an experienced Social Security disability attorney. Ms. Kuykendall has appeared in hundreds of Social Security disability hearings. Prior to opening her own firm, she worked for a well-known personal injury firm where she practiced Social Security disability law.

BOB RICHARDSON is an attorney with the Bob Richardson Law Firm and has practiced law for more than 25 years. He earned his B.A. degree from Vanderbilt University and his J.D. degree from the University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Richardson is a member of and served five terms on the National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives (NOSSCR) Board of Directors and as president of the Fifth Circuit Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives (FOSSCR). He also is a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and State Bar of Texas.

CAMILLE K. WALKER is an attorney and owner of Camille Walker, PLLC and her focus is in probate, Social Security disability and bankruptcy. She earned her bachelor's degree from Texas Tech University and her J.D. degree from the University of Houston. Ms. Walker is admitted to practice law in Texas and before the Northern District Court of Texas. She has served as assistant city attorney for the city of Arlington and assistant general counsel for the Texas Workers Compensation Facility. Ms. Walker is a member of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants' Representatives (NOSSCR).

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