Applying the Grid Rules – A Case Study

Claimant Profile: 51-year-old female

Past work: Hand packer for lock manufacturing company

Education: high school graduate

Basis of disability claim: The physical problem is due to uncontrolled diabetes for 3+ years.  Related symptoms include numbness in lower legs and feet. Based on these symptoms, the claimant cannot stand for more than 10 minutes at a time, walk beyond 20 yards without difficulty, or sit more than 30 minutes at a time.  The claimant is not able to drive because she cannot feel her feet and she does not get restorative sleep because of the nerve pain during her sleep.

Analysis: The medical record clearly demonstrated that my client had significant nerve damage in both of her feet.  Because of the neuropathy brought about by years of uncontrolled diabetes (typical blood sugar readings between 250 and 300), she was left with absolutely no feeling in her feet.  She was able to walk short distances, but with much discomfort and difficulty.

I talked my client’s treating physician into filling out a “functional capacity evaluation” so that the physical limitations could be defined in a checklist type format.  This form indicated all sorts of disabilities; for instance, it stated the claimant could not walk for more than 5 minutes at a time, stand for more than 10 minutes at a time, and that standing and walking were limited to less than 2 hours total during the day.

Under the Social Security’s definitions, a “light” job mostly requires standing and walking up to 6 hours out of an 8-hour day.  Given my client’s physical limitations, this would be impossible for my client. So any light, unskilled job would be excluded from consideration.

Since the physical inability limited her from standing and walking, my client, at best, would be limited to sedentary work. Therefore, we had an individual over the age of 50 with a high school education that did not provide for direct entry into workspace meant for skilled workers.  Her unskilled past work and lack of transferable skills excluded her from entry into skilled work.  Based on her unskilled background, age, and limited capacity for work, Grid 201.12 deems the individual disabled per the grid.

The judge hearing our case was a visiting judge from California available only on video conferencing.  He immediately recognized that this was a “grid” case and he called me in to the hearing room before the actual hearing started and asked me if we would amend our “onset date” to the claimant’s 50th birthday in January 2006. I immediately discussed this with my client and she agreed to this amendment then I returned to the courtroom to report back to the judge.  The judge then went on the record and announced that he would grant this case “on the record” based on the grid rules.

Thanks to her meeting grid requirements, my client never set foot in the courtroom and the hearing lasted for only 45 seconds.