DISABILITY HEARINGS: YOUR BENEFITS HINGE ON THEM.

Approximately 75 percent of applicants for Social Security disability will end up at a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ).

Your benefits depend on how well you perform at this hearing, or more accurately, on how well your attorney performs.

The hearing is abut evidence. It is about proof of disability. You must show that you qualify for a disability benefit under the guidelines, laws and regulations of the Social Security Administration.

Sure, you can tell the judge about your aches and pains, your fatigue and other problems. But this will not qualify you for a benefit.

The legal aspects of your case may get you paid, if you know how to present them and how to prove them.

If you meet a Listing level impairment, you need to present evidence proving it. If you are old enough to meet a Medical-Vocational Guideline, you need to clearly make that case to the judge.

If you don't meet a Listing and you don't grid under a Medical-Vocational Guideline, only one avenue is still open to you: Prove that your residual functional capacity (RFC) is so restricted that you cannot perform unskilled sedentary work.

This will require an intimate, detailed knowledge of what your doctors have said about you in their medical records. Here, you especially must make the case for how long you can sit, stand and walk. How much you can lift, stoop, reach, etc.

You also have to answer the judge's objections or problems with paying the case: work after the alleged onset date, the onset date itself, or other "red flags" that cause the judge problems.

Most claimants think they can try the hearing alone. If the lose, they can always get an attorney later. However, you only get one hearing. They will not give you a new hearing just because you appeared unrepresented and lost. Once lost, it's done and gone.

Get your attorney, then go to the hearing, not the other-way-around.