Friday, September 13, 2019

Answers to Questions from the New Orleans NOSSCR Conference


20           An example of a cross or rebuttal to “no fast pace production or piece rate quota” ?
The O*NET OnLine describes pace requirement in the work setting.  The data for cashier, for example:
Environmental
%
Response
Pace Determined by Speed of Equipment — How important is it to this job that the pace is determined by the speed of equipment or machinery? (This does not refer to keeping busy at all times on this job.)
0
Extremely important
0
Very important
20
Important
13
Fairly important
67
Not important at all

So cashiers are not pace determined by speed of equipment as extremely important or very important. 

14           Can you please post your slides on your blog?

I posted from:

9             But if you ask the VW, they will say the cashier slides the case of water across the scanner, they will say the VW is not lifting that weight.

The BLS (ORS) states that:
Series ID: ORUP1000066700000663
Not seasonally adjusted
Series Title: % of cashiers; strength is medium work
Requirement: Physical Demands
Occupation: Cashiers
Estimate: strength is medium work
Year
Period
Estimate
2018
Annual
58.6

What is your basis for disagreeing with that finding. 

9             What is the citation for SVP 1 is 4hours demonstration?


5             How do counter a vocational witness that you know is not being forthcoming or honest?

I just want an answer to the question that the Supreme Court directs me to ask:  do you have a reliable methodology for extrapolating your local experience to the national economy?

5             In my experience, if my cross of the VE possibly works, the ALJ finds on another issue, so it is difficult to tell how my cross was received. How can you tell if what you are doing is winning more hearings? Are you just preserving the record for appeal?

I can do this all day long.  If the claimant has significant limitations, you can erase any occupation.  Just persevere. 

4             The payment of MEs/VEs is available through FOIA. How do you suggest we use that as a bias argument?

I don’t have to prove bias.  I have to prove that the testimony is feeble and contradicted.  Stick to what the claimant must prove. 

4             the answer VEs give to cashier lifting a case of water is that it is left in the cast & they don't have to lift it.

The BLS states that cashiers engage in medium work in most jobs, do you have a statistical basis to show that the BLS is wrong?

4             Please zoom in!

Get your free 30 days at www.occucollect.com. 

4             Has SSA formally accepted the ORS data for use in administrative hearings?

ORS provides information about the requirements of work in the national economy conducted under an interagency agreement with the Social Security Administration (SSA).

2             How do you know that JBP uses an equal distribution method? Where does it say that?


2             With the cashier issue and 60% being medium, couldn't the VE just say they could do one of the 40% that is not medium and that's still a significant number of jobs?

The 60% medium is a response to “as generally performed.”  AGP, cashiers are medium. 
If your client can perform the full range of light work, including stand/walk 7+ hours per day, the client is not disabled.  To prove disability for the sub-55 claimant, the record needs to prove a stand/walk limitation, an interaction with others limitation, or something else. 

2             Do you need to buy a subscription to Occu Collect to get all the screens you showed?

www.occucollect.com reproduces in one location the DOT, SCO, O*NET work context, O*NET work abilities, and the ORS.  You can go to four different websites and cobble the data together.  I have done it.  It takes about two hours per occupation.  If you use occucollect, it takes about 20 minutes per occupation once you have done it a handful of time.  The reports that are not available in a report format are the specialty reports that I did not cover, the Sedentary Compendium in the store, and the O*NET education training and experience report.   

2             When a VW says, "this is how the job is generally performed," when we ask about reliable method for extrapolating local experience to national economy, the VW inevitably says it is discussed at conferences, their VW chat groups, etc... how do we knock it out at that point?

What was the reliable methods used in the group?  Did you ask your chat club members about their reliable methods? 
Remember that 100 scientists got together and told the world that Einstein was wrong about relativity. 

2             If you don’t have a letter from the treating physician and the CE puts the claimant at medium. How do you come up with hypotheticals to the VE? How do we assume the amount off task in a day and/or any supportive hypothetical

The CE will typically describe a limitation to six hours of standing/walking.  Medium work requires seven or eight hours of standing/walking.  The CE might have described a limited range of motion for forward flexion.  This is sometimes a fruitful avenue.  Look for gait disturbance in the record, that might give you more. 

2             Is there a Federal Court case that you can cite where the court said the equal distribution method is not a valid way to calculate job numbers?

Chavez v. Berryhill, 895 F.3d 962 (2018)
Brault v. SSA Comm’r, 683 F.3d 443 (2012)

2             Which website was it in which the BLS writes that they maintain DOT only because of SSA, and that if you want reliable current data, go to the O*Net? I'd love to have that webpage so I can print it and submit in every case.


1             What is the BLS?

Bureau of Labor Statistics

1             Good case law on VE - DOT conflict in 11th Circuit (Washington) & 4th. Extend to VE conflict with O-NET etc?

Wait for it.  This depends on Kisor v. Wilkie application to SSR 00-4p.  See the blog at:


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