I tried a case today that was kind of interesting – and the Judge will be issuing a fully favorable decision.  The claimant is a 37 year old woman who has been diagnosed with major depression with psychotic features.

My client had been sexually abused by a family member as a teenager and thereafter began experiencing audio and visual hallucinations (she sees shadows and hears voices).  She has attempted suicide 8 times over the past 10 years.  She has also been hospitalized at psychiatric hospitals five times, including one hospitalization last week.

The claimant’s past work was as a small parts assembler, an inventory control person and as a nurse’s aide. She testified that she would work for a while, but would always feel that her co-workers were “whispering” about her.  She said that a voice in her head would tell her to leave.

The vocational witness testified that if her testimony was deemed credible, that she would not be able to perform any job in the competitive job market because of these distractions and because of the impairment in her concentration.

The medical record in this case was about five inches thick and the judge understood from the outset that this claimant had some significant limitations.  The obvious question in my mind, therefore – why wasn’t the Social Security adjudicator able to approve this case a long time ago.  My client filed for benefits in October, 2002.  Her medical record has been consistent with regard to her mental health issues.  Why is it that she had to wait three and a half years to get a decision?

I also think that what made this case easy for the judge to decide were the numerous work limitations set out in the record.  During our pre-hearing meeting, I practiced with my client to make sure that she described her work issues in terms of minutes and hours and gave specific answers to questions about how often certain distractions occurred.