2 Powerful Winning Strategies:
Pre-Hearing Briefs & On-the-Record Requests

In effort to win your disability case with as little hassle as possible and/or to win your case without having to actually attend a hearing, it has become my practice to submit “pre-hearing briefs” or “On-the-record requests” to Social Security Judges prior to the actual hearings.  These documents are designed to clearly state the argument for your case and to outline all of your medical evidence in a way which may improve our chances of getting a favorable decision from the Judge without having to actually sit through a hearing.  Here’s how it works:

In the months leading up to the hearing, my staff and I update all of the medical evidence in your case file and, once updated, abstract your medical records in a timeline-type fashion.  Essentially, we document your medical history from when your problems began all the way to the present, developing an argument as to why you are disabled as we go.  We also determine, based on the specifics of your case, whether you meet a listing or fall into a grid category.

Once we have summarized all of your medical records and developed a clear argument about why you are disabled, I write a pre-hearing brief for your case which I submit directly to the Judge which your case has been assigned to.  I do this several weeks or days before your hearing so that the Judge is familiar with your case before we show up for the hearing.  That way, the Judge knows what your claim is focused around and can get down to the essentials during the hearing, often resulting in a more hassle-free or shorter hearing than typical hearings – ones in which pre-hearing briefs have not been submitted.

Not only to Judges appreciate the advantage of having a succinct description of our argument, they also appreciate the time taken to submit such briefs and recognize the amount of work that we have put into your case.  My experience has been that I am more likely to win a case if I have submitted a pre-hearing brief.

Similarly, On-the-record requests are written prior to the hearing and designed to provide the Judge with enough medical evidence to issue a decision prior to the actual hearing.  If I can get an OTR request to the judge far enough ahead of time, they will often review my argument and all of the supporting medical evidence and issue a decision “on-the-record,” thereby eliminating the actual hearing.

Click on the link to review an on-the-record request that I recently submitted which resulted in a favorable decision prior to the actual hearing.  Please note that I have changed the names of the people and some of the details involved in this case to protect my client’s rights; however, the argument remains intact.

Below is an additional example of an on-the-record request involving a Fibromyalgia client:

Fibromyalgia and Multiple Auto-immune Disorders – 43 year old female with 9th grade education – click highlighted text to read