Favorable Decision after Slip and Fall Accident

Residual Functional Capacity

Recently, a 51-year-old client of Neil H. Good received a fully favorable decision from the Social Security Administration, following a hearing in front of the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR). The woman had worked as a hospital respiratory therapist for nearly 20 years. She has completed two years of college.

She had fractured a bone in a slip and fall accident four years before her hearing. Nearly a year after the accident, she had surgery which did not result in full relief or recovery. Indeed, as of the hearing, she still had difficulty walking, plus swelling and leg pain. Her medications included Paxil, Ativan, Seroquel, and Lasix, among others.

Her disability benefits were awarded on the basis of far more than the bone injury. In his ruling, the judge found the client suffered from severe impairments: hypertension, gout, bone fracture, status post open reduction, sarcoidosis, major depressive disorder, and steatosis. The impairments cause mild restriction in daily living activities, marked difficulties in maintaining social functioning, and marked difficulties in maintaining concentration, persistence, or pace.

The decision followed a hearing at which Neil H. Good presented medical evidence, followed the judge’s consideration of a detailed pre-hearing memo in which Attorney Good summarized the case, and tied together all the varying facets of the various medical impairments affecting the client’s (in)ability to work. The judge found the client was entitled to benefits dating not to when she had surgery, but to when she had the slip and fall accident.

The hearing judge found that the client’s residual functional capacity prevented her doing any kind of work-related activity on a sustained, full-time or part-time basis.

The favorable decision was received a mere six weeks after the hearing. Attorney Neil Good had become involved in the case after the client had been turned down at an earlier hearing.