How do we prove pain in a Social Security Disability case?

Transcript

You know, Jim, one thing that we haven’t talked about is the role that pain plays in a disability case and during the disability hearing. 

Pain is a very important factor. 

The issue, as disability lawyers, that we have to face is that pain can be subjective.

So how do we prove pain? What are some things that you do to establish the level of pain that your client experiences? 

Well, of course, one of the things you do is we ask the doctors about pain and whether the pain levels that our client describes to us, whether those are consistent with the injuries and with the limitations that the doctor sees that the client has.

Another thing you can do is be sure that your client describes to the doctor on each visit whatever pain that he has so that it’s validated in the medical records. 

And the third thing is you can ask, particularly in cases where the pain becomes debilitating totally, you can have your client keep a pain log so that they can then have something that gives some definition to their testimony about pain.

And many times, not only do we recommend that our client take the pain log or other journals to their doctors, there have been instances where we submit those and make them part of the record. 

Exactly. 

Objective evidence is also important, especially when it comes to establishing pain. 

Take, for instance, an individual that suffers from a back condition, has a herniated disc.

Of course, an MRI, x-ray, some type of diagnostic imaging is going to help bolster our client’s claim that they suffer from pain that’s debilitating.

And also, when you have clients who have worked through pain in a job and then can no longer tolerate the pain so they have to go out of work and become disabled, sometimes we can use third-party statements by other people to validate that pain with their observations of how they saw the person functioning.

And when we prepare our client for hearing, one thing that I find is that when we talk about pain, our clients want to associate pain with physical demands, their ability to lift and carry, sit, stand and walk.

However, pain also affects clients from what we call a nonexertional standpoint, which is just a fancy term for how it impacts your ability to concentrate, focus, maintain persistence and pace. 

Those things are very important when establishing the impact that pain may play in a disability case. 

So, David, that’s a very good point. And one of the things we do is we have our clients give very specific examples of how pain impacts them. 

So if our client testifies, “I have so much pain, I can’t do anything,” that’s pretty much ignored by the judge. 

But when the client testifies, “My pain is so bad, I can’t wash the dishes, I can’t keep my hands out in front of my body to wash dishes, or I can’t unload the dishwasher, or I can’t feed the dog.” 

The specific examples of things that you can’t do, it helps the judge understand the extent of the pain and how it would impact your ability to work.