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Winning Your Disability Case by Arguing that Your Condition Meets or Equals a Listing

  Unlike Social Security retirement, Social Security disability is not automatically granted.  Retirement benefits arising from your reaching a certain age.  Disability benefits will be paid if you prove to the Social Security Administration that you have a medical condition or conditions that prevents you from engaging in substantial activity and that your condition will last or has lasted 12 consecutive months or result in death.

  As discussed on this website, your capacity for work rather than your medical condition itself becomes the primary concern  of the Social Security judge in a disability case.

  Most cases are decided based on the judge’s consideration of your capacity for work. However, a significant number of cases are decided under a different consideration - do you meet a Social Security listing?

What are the Social Security Disability Listings?

  Although the main focus of every disability case relates to your capacity for work, your limitations must have some basis in a medical or mental health condition.  Social Security recognizes that some medical conditions are so severe and significant that functional limitations can be assumed.

  For example, if your medical problem relates to congestive heart failure, and your heart has been damaged to the point where it pumps only 15% of capacity, Social Security will assume that there is no work out there that you could do.

  If your medical problems arises from a mental health issues such that you have been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, and that you frequently experience audio or visual hallucinations that you cannot concentrate and have experienced breakdowns at past work, Social Security will give you the benefit of the doubt that your capacity to function has been greatly affected.

  Detailed descriptions of serious medical and mental health issues that would qualify you for disability based on medical findings alone may be found at the Disability Blue Book published by the Social Security Administration.  Click here to read how Social Security describes “listing level” impairments.

  The Adult Disability Listings divide the body into fourteen (14) different body systems.  In each of the 14 sections there can be multiple categories of diagnosable medical conditions.

How to Use the Listings to Win Your Case

  In my practice, if I believe that my client’s medical condition meets or equals a listing, I will identify the appropriate listing, then create a checklist form that tracks the language of the listing.  I will usually add several additional questions that I know from experience will answer other questions that the judge might have - for instance the first date that my client’s condition existed at “listing” level.

  Because Social Security listings are difficult to meet, I usually prepare a functional capacity argument as a backup argument in cases that I believe might be listing level.  Either way, my goal is to “speak Social Security’s language” and to address specifically the issues that your judge needs to consider when evaluating your claim.

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