Vocational Expert And Their Role In A Disability Hearing

Disability hearings are a big deal. Before granting you your benefits, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will often require testimony from a vocational expert.

These experts are highly qualified to speak about even the most complex details of the labor market. They’re also required to calculate the exact impact that a personal injury had on the earning capacity of an individual, as well as the skill level required for certain jobs.

Since this expert is the one who brings the relevant knowledge to the table, they are the ones who determine which jobs you can successfully do with the impairments you have. In other words, they’re the experts that determine whether your claim is approved or not.

How Important Is a Vocational Expert’s Testimony?

On the day of your disability hearing, an administrative law judge will call upon a vocational expert to determine if your medical condition is preventing you from working. While these judges have a deep knowledge of laws and regulations regarding disabilities, they’re not familiar with the types of jobs the claimant can do.

The case is decided, so to speak, on the facts of whether there are any jobs you can do. Thus, a judge will inquire about the labor market and the skills necessary to perform certain jobs. 

Granted, the judge still has the last word regarding if you will receive your benefits, but not without the input of the vocational expert. After all, it is they who are familiar with the residual functional capacity and its impact on your ability to perform work-related tasks.

In some cases, the judge might be familiar with the limitations in a general sense, but SSA still requires them to consult an expert before they reach their decision. This is because vocational experts are familiar with all the relevant job duties and employment data, so their opinion can pretty much be what determines the outcome of your claim.

Assessment of Your Work History

One of the main roles of the vocational expert is to assess your entire work history to ascertain the exertion and skill level necessary to perform the jobs. 

The levels of exertion are divided into four categories:

Sedentary job: a seated job that includes occasional walking or standing and requires lifting about ten pounds.

Light job: involve a significant amount of movement but doesn’t require carrying more than ten pounds and lifting less than 20 pounds.

Medium job: requires a worker to stand or walk for extended periods (at least 6 hours), lifting upwards of 50 pounds, and carrying as much as 25 pounds.

Heavy job: requires all exertion levels.

Skill levels are divided into three categories:

Unskilled job: requires a minimal level of judgment and can be learned quickly.

Semi-skilled job: requires some skill and attention to detail and may require the ability to move hands and feet to complete repetitive tasks.

Skilled job: requires qualifications and involves dealing with numbers, facts, abstract ideas, or people.

At the hearing, the judge will ask you to describe the jobs you worked in the past. You’ll have to describe the physical requirements, whether you had to go through special training, how long did it take you to learn your job, and if you managed other people. 

They might even ask you about any gaps in your resume or why you quit a particular job.

The expert will then classify each job based on the level of exertion and skill, and use this to conclude if you can do your old job. You should pay extra attention to how the expert describes your jobs and make sure that their descriptions are correct.

Questioning The Vocational Expert

Once you testify, both the administrative law judge will question the expert witness. The questions in a disability claim are usually structured as hypotheticals. 

The first person who gets to question the expert is the judge.

The judge’s line of questioning

For instance, a judge might formulate a question such as:

Consider an individual with the same age as the claimant, the same level of education, and the same work history. Can that individual perform only unskilled sedentary work, and are there any jobs available in the current economy that they might be able to perform?

The expert will then identify the jobs they think the hypothetical individual can do. They’ll provide the code of each job and the number of jobs in your area. 

By referring to the SSA’s assessments and your doctor, the judge will proceed with creating more hypothetical questions. For instance, if you have a limited range of motion and ability to lift objects, the judge might pose a question such as:

Consider an individual with the same age as the claimant, the same level of education, and the same work history. This individual can only sit for four hours and might occasionally be able to lift 10 pounds. Are there any jobs available that this individual can perform?

Once again, the expert will consider the hypothetical scenario and give their opinion.

When the judge states they have no further questions, you or your attorney (if you have one) will get the chance to perform a cross-examination.

Your attorney’s questions

The goal here is to perform a cross-examination that eliminates the jobs that the vocational expert claims you can do. The best way to do this is to provide more limitations that the expert has to consider.

For instance, while answering the judge’s questions, the expert may have concluded that you can work a sedentary position such as secretarial work. Taking this into consideration, an attorney may ask the expert further questions that include the limitations not mentioned by the judge, such as your inability to bend. They may ask the following:

Consider an individual with the same age as the claimant, the same level of education, and the same work history. This hypothetical individual cannot bend. Is such an individual capable of performing secretarial work?

Since this job requires bending, the expert might then conclude you are unable to perform the job. The attorney will pose similar questions until they effectively eliminate all the jobs identified by the vocational expert.

If you don’t have an attorney, you may question the expert yourself. However, formulating the right questions requires knowledge of disability law, which is why we don’t recommend attending the disability hearing without legal representation.

Asking The Right Questions

Even though the SSA hired the expert, it doesn’t mean you should view them as your opponent or fear them. They’re only there to determine the material facts of the case. 

With the right set of questions, they might support your claim if there are no jobs you can currently perform. This is why we can only advise you to consult an attorney before your disability hearing. 

It’s your future hanging in the balance, and with an experienced disability attorney supporting you, you’ll get the most out of your hearing. They can prepare you to respond to the questions that the judge asks you, as well as cross-examine the vocational expert on your behalf. 

In getting you closer to receiving the benefits you deserve, this can be an invaluable help.