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Video Blog – SS – Hearing Vocational Expert

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Natalia Jofre:Hello, and welcome to Hill and Ponton Social Security and disability blog. I’m Natalia Jofre, our Social Security section director.
Shelly Mark:And I am Shelly Mark. I am our senior Social Security attorney.
Natalia Jofre:So our last couple of blogs, we’ve talked about when you get to the hearing day, what to expect the day of your hearing, who is in the hearing or what happens. Now we’re going to talk about one of the main experts at that they’re now calling at a lot of hearings. This used to not be as common as it is now, but it’s a vocational expert.
Shelly Mark:That’s correct.
Natalia Jofre:We get calls all the time, who is this person? What are they gonna do? Are they gonna be opposing me in terms of … So, can you explain to people what a vocation expert is and I guess their function is in the hearing?
Shelly Mark:Sure. The vocational expert is now used in 99% of all the hearings that we do. Their role in the hearing is to advise the judge and get testimony on the type of work that the client used to do, and then the type of work that they could or could not do, depending on their physical or their mental limitations.
The one important thing for clients to know is that the vocational expert will be answering questions from the judge and from the attorney, but they will not be asking them any questions unless it’s simply to clarify some type of what they did in the past.
Natalia Jofre:So, it’s not as if they’re going to ask the claimant directly questions or what did you do or might you do or how intense with this or that?
Shelly Mark:No, they will not. If they have a question for the client about any of the work that they used to do, they would ask that to the judge, and then the judge would ask the client that question.
Natalia Jofre:Okay.
Shelly Mark:But they’re basically there to do, in a nutshell, is there to describe the claimant’s past work and then they are going to say whether or not they can do that past work or other work, based on the limitations that the judge tells them. So the judge is going to say, “Well, if this person were limited to only standing or walking two hours a day and only lifting 10 pounds throughout the day, could they perform their job as a heavy equipment operator?”
Then that vocational expert is, in their opinion, going to say whether they could perform that job or whether they could perform other work. Without getting too complicated, this ties back to a few of our previous blogs when we talked about how important it was to accurately describe the past work of the claimant.
Natalia Jofre:Because a lot of their information or a lot of what they know, or they think they know, they’re going off of that form you previously completed, right?
Shelly Mark:That’s correct. They’re going off of that form and the testimony, but I have had judges find the client to be not credible because their testimony was not matching that form, which is why Natalia and I have been very adamant that those forms are really, really important all the way to the actual hearing day.
Natalia Jofre:And this is why.
Shelly Mark:Yes. That’s exactly right.
Natalia Jofre:The judges started … you know, we mentioned that you used to not always have a vocational expert and you don’t have to have one, but most judges now are electing to have them because it really does provide them with objective evidence, per se or objective testimony
Shelly Mark:Right.
Natalia Jofre:Before judges would make their decisions and they were very rarely questioned and so on and so forth, whereas now they’re under a great deal of scrutiny to not approve claimants or to make sure that they’re approving claimants that they’re absolutely certain are disabled. They’re under a lot of pressure.
Shelly Mark:They are.
Natalia Jofre:So this, kind of like to offset that pressure where, this objective party is there to just provide testimony based on their work history and what their expert opinion is.
Shelly Mark:Right. And a lot of people think that this is an employee of Social Security and that’s not true. The Social Security Administration does pay them for their service, but they are not in any way, shape or form connected to Social Security. Most of these individuals have worked as job coaches or vocational experts or with vocational rehabilitation for decades. The majority of them do a really good job at classifying the client’s past work and then answering the judge’s questions.
Natalia Jofre:Okay. Great. Next blog, we’ll talk about medical experts, which is the other kind of expert you can have at a hearing, so if you’d like, join us then. If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to visit our website or call our office. Thanks for joining us.
Shelly Mark:Thank you.
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Shelly Mark, Senior Attorney

Current Employment Position:SMC3 150x200 Senior Attorney, Hill & Ponton, P.A.Prior Employment: Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, Inc.Area of Practice: Social Security LawBar Admissions: Florida BarBar Association Memberships: Florida Bar Association Orange County Bar Association Volusia County Bar AssociationEducation: Florida State University , B.S. Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law – Barry University, J.D. Equal Justice Works Fellow (2009-2011)Memberships: National Organization of Veteran Advocates Volusia/Flagler Women Lawyer’s Association Volusia/Flagler County Coalition for the Homeless – SecretaryBook Awards: Administrative Law Problem Solving & NegotiatingPersonal Note: Shelly was born in Pensacola, Florida. After graduating from Florida State University, she worked for an HIV-AIDS non-profit organization in Tallahassee assisting individuals suffering from HIV – AIDS with obtaining medical treatment, healthcare insurance, mental and substance abuse counseling, and housing.Shelly was granted an Equal Justice Works Fellowship, from 2009 to 2011, to assist homeless and low income veterans in Central Florida with VA disability claims.Shelly is a member and serves as Secretary of the Volusia/Flagler County Coalition for the Homeless. Through the coalition, she worked with Volusia County Judges, faith based community, and non-profit organizations to assist in establishing the SAVE (Sentencing Alternatives for Volusia Enforcement) Docket. The docket provides sentencing alternatives for homeless individuals issued Notices to Appear for minor offenses, such as sleeping in public and public intoxication.Shelly also volunteers with and serves as Legal advisor to IDignity DeLand. IDignity DeLand is a non-profit organization that assists low income and homeless individuals with obtaining identification or other required documentation at no cost.Shelly lives in Deltona and enjoys spending time with friends and family.

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