Administrative Law Judge Hearings
Preparing for your hearing
At the hearing stage, it is critical to have a lawyer or representative to help you. While you wait for your hearing to be scheduled, you and your lawyer can order updated medical records, ask friends and family for letters describing your everyday life living with a disability, and obtain work or education records to support your claim. Your lawyer may submit a request that your claim be approved without a hearing or a pre-hearing brief describing the evidence in support of your claim. Your lawyer will also prepare you to give your testimony at the hearing, so that you can present your story in the most effective way.
At the hearing
The hearing is informal - no one will be shouting “objection!” or harshly cross-examining you. You can attend in-person in a conference room at the Hearing Office, or you can attend by video or phone. The judge and your lawyer will ask you questions about your medical conditions, your life, and your work history. There will likely be testimony from a vocational (job) expert by phone, and there may be testimony from a medical expert. No one else can attend the hearing, so your information stays private. Hearings last about an hour.
You will not find out if your claim is going to get approved at the hearing - it will be a few more months before you get a written opinion describing the judge’s decision. If the judge rules that you are not disabled, the next step is an appeal to the Appeals Council.