Who is the Vocational Expert and why are they at my hearing?
The role played by the vocational expert (“VE”) at your social security disability hearing is often uncertain and confusing. Almost all social security disability hearings will involve a vocational expert who will provide impartial, neutral testimony about the availability and number of jobs in the national economy as it relates to your case. This expert will attend your hearing in person or appear via phone. Your social security disability lawyer will cross examine this person at the hearing.
Who is this person?
Vocational experts are well-trained specialists in the area of all things related to jobs. This includes the number and availability of jobs, the physical and mental requirements of a job, employer tolerances related to absenteeism and required level of production. These experts often have at least a master’s degree in vocational rehabilitation. Vocational experts are often engaged in performing comprehensive evaluations of job sites or working closely with a client to develop work skills and job placement. Social security disability hearings are usually not the primary source of income for vocational experts.
Vocational experts also are well-versed in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (“DOT”). The DOT is a large compendium of all available jobs (supposedly) in the national economy that the Social Security Agency (“SSA”) relies upon to find a job a person can perform. The DOT is technical and explored in further detail here. Vocational experts are familiar with the DOT job titles, job codes, and the unique attributes associated with each job as described in the DOT. The DOT contains specific information about a job’s lifting requirements, environmental factors, reaching, handling and fingering requirements, noise levels, and frequency of interactions with other people (and many more attributes).
Why is a Vocational Expert even at the hearing?
The Social Security Administration has the burden to prove that a job exists in the national economy that you can perform, considering all physical and mental limitations. Put another way, if the SSA cannot identify a job you are able to perform on a full-time, competitive basis, you will be found disabled. But how does the SSA make this determination and where does this information come from? The vocational expert. The administrative law judge will rely on the vocational expert’s testimony to conclude either there are jobs available—and therefore you lose; or there are not jobs available – in which case you win.
How does the judge obtain the information from the vocational expert?
The ALJ and your disability attorney will explore the impacts of your physical and/or mental limitations on the availability of jobs with the vocational expert. This part of the hearing is unique, a bit odd, and often extremely confusing to the client. The ALJ will propose a series of hypotheticals to the vocational expert, with each hypothetical adding an additional physical and/or mental limitation. The hypothetical will be based on someone of the same, age, education and work history as yourself. The ALJ will then add physical and/or mental limitations to this hypothetical person. The ALJ will include limitations such as, ‘this hypothetical person could only’:
- Sit for 4 hours out of an 8-hour day
- Stand and walk 4 hours
- Reach above the shoulder level only occasionally
- Perform only simple, routine, tasks
- Only occasional integration with supervisors or the general public
- Would be off task 10% of the day
- Miss two days a month
- And many more!
The vocational expert will consider the limitations proposed by the ALJ and, based on their expert knowledge, provide the court with the name of the available job, the DOT job code, number of jobs nationally, skill level required and exertional level required. Often there are many jobs available with the proposed limitations and the vocational expert will name three jobs as a representative sample.
The ALJ will often propose three hypotheticals, each one adding more restrictive physical and/or mental limitations. The first two hypotheticals usually do not preclude employment. The ALJ’s final hypothetical most often contains the limitations the judge will adopt in the decision.
Your disability lawyer will have the opportunity to cross-examine the vocational expert after the ALJ has concluded questioning. I will frequently need to inquire about the accuracy of the vocational expert’s testimony and ensure the testimony is valid. Likewise, I often closely question whether the expert fully explored the different industries or work environments that exist for a common job named. For example, if you can only stand two hours a day, and the expert testifies you could do the job of cashier, we need to find out how many cashier jobs allow you to sit down and how many cashier jobs require you to stand the entire shift.
Sometimes, your disability attorney will not need to cross-examine the vocational expert, depending on the circumstances of your case and the hypotheticals proposed by the ALJ. I often find a vigorous cross-examination is more harmful to the outcome depending on the facts and circumstances. Your attorneys experience is extremely important.
If you have questions or need help with a social security disability case, Attorney William Viner can help. Call now at 720-515-9012 or email info@vinerlaw.com
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