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Just a quick update, for those who are interested in how my mom's disability hearing went:
Short version - it went very well.
Long version - I was not allowed to be present in the room for about the first two-thirds of the hearing as I was a testifying witness, so I did not get to hear my mom's testimony. I was called in towards the end of the hearing, and was essentially asked to describe how my mom changes when her PT level gets outside of the safe range. Then I was asked some questions regarding why I have power of attorney and am handling all of her finances for her. The judge seemed very nice (in a slightly distant and judicial sort of way). Once my testimony was complete, the only other person left to testify was the employment specialist from Social Security. Really the extent of his testimony was to go through my mother's prior jobs and then give the judge specific code numbers for those job titles as well as a rating for both the physical demands of the job and the level of training required.
According to the lawyer, normally at that point the judge will as the job specialist to take a hypothetical person with, and state whether said hypothetical person could perform any of the jobs in the claimant's job history. The specialist generally replies "no." Then the judge will as if said hypothetical person could perform *any* job in the current economy, at which point the specialist names a few very low-level, menial-type jobs that the person could do. Then the lawyer tries to convince the judge to include additional limitations in order to exclude those jobs. That's how it normally goes.
In my mom's case, once the specialist finished testifying the judge did not have any questions at all for him. The lawyer says that this is an extremely good sign, in that it means that the judge has probably already come to the conclusion that my mom is definitely disabled. The judge did not issue a ruling on the spot, so now we just have to wait for the ruling. It could be a matter of days, or it could be a matter of months. According to the lawyer, positive rulings tend to happen pretty quickly (less paperwork to do, because a positive ruling is never going to be appealed), whereas a negative ruling takes longer because the ruling has to cover all of the bases defending why the claimant should not be considered disabled, and what jobs the claimant could perform. Since a negative ruling will pretty much always be appealed, it just takes longer to generate the supporting paperwork.
So now we wait. Hopefully not for too long.
Short version - it went very well.
Long version - I was not allowed to be present in the room for about the first two-thirds of the hearing as I was a testifying witness, so I did not get to hear my mom's testimony. I was called in towards the end of the hearing, and was essentially asked to describe how my mom changes when her PT level gets outside of the safe range. Then I was asked some questions regarding why I have power of attorney and am handling all of her finances for her. The judge seemed very nice (in a slightly distant and judicial sort of way). Once my testimony was complete, the only other person left to testify was the employment specialist from Social Security. Really the extent of his testimony was to go through my mother's prior jobs and then give the judge specific code numbers for those job titles as well as a rating for both the physical demands of the job and the level of training required.
According to the lawyer, normally at that point the judge will as the job specialist to take a hypothetical person with
In my mom's case, once the specialist finished testifying the judge did not have any questions at all for him. The lawyer says that this is an extremely good sign, in that it means that the judge has probably already come to the conclusion that my mom is definitely disabled. The judge did not issue a ruling on the spot, so now we just have to wait for the ruling. It could be a matter of days, or it could be a matter of months. According to the lawyer, positive rulings tend to happen pretty quickly (less paperwork to do, because a positive ruling is never going to be appealed), whereas a negative ruling takes longer because the ruling has to cover all of the bases defending why the claimant should not be considered disabled, and what jobs the claimant could perform. Since a negative ruling will pretty much always be appealed, it just takes longer to generate the supporting paperwork.
So now we wait. Hopefully not for too long.