Disability Insurance Benefits

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Louquetta R. O’Connor-Spinner v. Carolyn W. Colvin

Case No.: 15-2567

Officials: BAUER, MANION, and KANNE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Disability Insurance Benefits

Holding of ALJ in disability benefits hearing contradicts medical evidence provided.

“Apart from contradicting the existing evidence, Dr. Shipley’s assessment also stands in stark contrast to the conclusions of medical providers who continued to treat O’ConnorSpinner. In March 2010, a few months after Dr. Shipley offered his assessment, a nurse practitioner specializing in pain management had examined O’Connor-Spinner. The nurse practitioner had noted significant signs of depression, remarked on the limited efficacy of O’Connor-Spinner’s prescribed antidepressants, and recorded her revelation that more often than not she thinks she’d be better off dead. O’Connor-Spinner continued taking those medications, however, and later in 2010 a clinician at the community mental health center had written that she “presented as depressed and her affect was constricted,” that her cognition was impaired, and that she “struggled” with both serial sevens and fours. The clinician opined that the effectiveness of O’ConnorSpinner’s medications should be evaluated, repeated the diagnosis of “major depressive disorder, recurrent,” and assigned her a GAF score of 55. “

Vacated and Remanded

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.