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Oklahoma District Court Reverses ALJ

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

Oklahoma District Court Reverses ALJ

June 3, 2015. In this case, on referral by a sole practitioner non-attorney representative, we convince the government to voluntarily remand the case primarily on the basis of our argument that the ALJ had failed to ensure that an adequate record was developed. In particular, the claimant, who had no insurance, had submitted evidence strongly suggestive of the fact that her pulmonary condition had greatly worsened and, on the basis of various authorities convinced the government that the ALJ should have at a bare minimum have ordered updated pulmonary function testing. Moreover (and, frankly, this may have been the kicker), the ALJ blatantly relied upon extra record evidence in the form of extensive citations to a 1992 version of a medical journal as at least a partial rationale for his decision to deny benefits.