ALJ Error – Disability

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: George A. Plessinger, II, v. Nancy A. Berryhill

Case No.: 18-1240

Officials: SYKES, HAMILTON, and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges.

Focus: ALJ Error – Disability

George Plessinger applied for disability insurance benefits under the Social Security Act based on his chronic back pain. An administrative law judge found that he was severely impaired by his lumbar degenerative disc disease and stenosis, thoracic degenerative disc disease, obesity, and systemic hypertension. Given the stringent standard for total disability under the Social Security Act, however, the ALJ found that these impairments were not disabling. The agency’s Appeals Council denied review, and the district court upheld the ALJ’s decision. We reverse and remand to the agency. In the face of the great weight of medical evidence supporting Plessinger’s claims of disabling impairments, the ALJ gave undue weight to the opinion of the testifying medical expert, who did not examine Plessinger and hedged his opinion in a critical way that was never resolved. The ALJ and the testifying medical expert each seemed to delegate to the other the job of evaluating the credibility of Plessinger’s complaints of pain. The ALJ’s decision to discount the credibility of those complaints was not supported by substantial evidence.

Reversed 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.