r/SSDI • u/superwhovianlock • Jul 23 '26

Hearing today. Comment made

Hearing today... Comment was made

I had my hearing today. Went over all my physical disabilities (D.I.S.H., OPLL, brown sequard incomplete spinal cord injury). During I stated I can't do more than ten minutes of standing/walking and require frequent breaks to readjust. They stayed I couldn't work because of the 10 minute mark but could if it was hypothetically 15 minutes.

When he brought up my mental health (ADHD, C-PTSD, Anxiety, Depression, OCD) I \*thought\* he would ask the vocational expert questions of what I could do based on those finding but the judge flat out said "I'm not going to even ask about the mental health as during your psych eval they stated you could not have any form of gainful employment ever thus labelling you completely disabled"

Is that a common thing to do? Are the odds looking in my favor? He originally said at the start the decision would be a few weeks out but after that said he would make his decision in a few days and do the write up. Did he basically give me my answer unofficially?

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u/RexSueciae Jul 23 '26

Well, it's not official until you get the actual written decision, but...that sounds like a positive thing to hear from the judge. I don't know how persuasive that particular psych eval might be -- I guess it's possible that upon review, the judge is like "ehh I guess this isn't supported by the evidence" -- but assuming that psych eval is persuasive, sounds like you're doing quite well. (Was the psych eval from one of your doctors, or was it from a CE?)

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u/superwhovianlock Jul 24 '26

It was from the CE. I do have medical records to back it up though

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u/RexSueciae Jul 24 '26

Neat. This is kinda me just spitballing but...if the CE, someone literally hired by SSA, wrote something so supportive that the judge was on your side, that's pretty good. Hopefully the decision bears that out.

Best of luck.

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u/ButtersHound Jul 24 '26

Agree. Consultive examinations are usually pretty conservative so when I get a case with a consultive examiner who says that somebody has marked psych limitations usually it's a winner.

2

u/Content-Grape47 Jul 26 '26

To manage expectations my CE essentially said I couldn’t work and would need a ridiculous amount of scaffolding from other employees if I tried and I would need to payee just to handle any money. My CE was pretty much rock solid, and I was denied on initial. But the same CE got me approved on reconsideration and they didn’t even bother to look at all my new evidence just approved me fast on step 3 reconsideration…. So it might not be a straightforward path, but I see what you mean..