Using Hidden Gems in Ruling to Win More Cases (Presented by National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives)

This session challenges the common ALJ assumption that mental health treatment consisting primarily of medication management and therapy is merely “routine and conservative.” Practitioners will learn strategies to reframe this treatment as appropriate standard care for psychiatric conditions, leveraging SSR 16-3p’s requirement that ALJs consider treatment context before drawing adverse inferences.

This session addresses how ALJs often conflate a claimant’s presentation in clinical settings with their ability to sustain competitive employment. Attendees will explore SSR 85-15’s provisions on basic mental work demands and learn to articulate why appearing stable during brief medical appointments does not demonstrate capacity for eight-hour workdays with supervisors, coworkers, and production pressures.

This session examines how ALJs improperly equate limited daily activities with work capacity and penalize claimants for underreporting symptoms. Practitioners will learn to use SSR 96-8p’s requirement that lay evidence be addressed and SSR 16-3p’s prohibition on relying solely on objective evidence to counter these common errors in mental health disability determinations.