Fully Favorable Remand from Appeals Council to ALJ
Dec 16, 2015OUTCOME: Won
In February 2013, I first consulted with my client, anonymous for confidentiality purposes, who sought my help with an appeal of her recent denial from Social Security. She also had a previous denial f ... rom an Administrative Law Judge upon coming to the US from Iraq where she was persecuted and traumatized. On her new claim, she has a higher burden of proof – that her conditions have significantly worsened. I believed in her despite the lack of corroborative medical evidence. During the hearing, I requested a psychiatric consultative exam be scheduled to substantiate my client’s PTSD symptoms and limitations; the Judge refused. The Appeals Council granted my request for review and remanded the case back to the Judge. After another brief and hearing, the Judge agreed that my client was disabled and awarded benefits back to her application date, awarding over 3 years’ worth of back-pay benefits, as well as the insurance coverage and monthly award we sought.