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Iowa District Court Reverses ALJ

Osterhout Berger Disability Law > Case Summaries  > Iowa District Court Reverses ALJ

Iowa District Court Reverses ALJ

In this case referred by another attorney, the claimant absolutely had a serious DAA problem with numerous relapses, some elements of noncompliance. But, the Brueggeman Eighth Circuit decision is really the only circuit decision that explicitly requires ALJs to follow the old emergency memo and now SSR 13-2p, and so even though this claimant plainly had a serious DAA problem the ALJ erred when he failed to consider the numerous periods of time when the claimant was sober, and how the evidence in terms of mental functioning really didn’t change much during those periods. Also, the ALJ did not really use the 13-2p analysis but rather just used DAA to attack credibility. Case remanded for reconsideration under the appropriate standards.