Western District of Arkansas

In this case, on referral by another attorney, the government moved for remand without filing a brief, after reading ours, and the Western District of Arkansas agreed. Although we do not normally get a very clear or specific indication of the errors that the government feels require a voluntary remand I believe one in particular, that the SSA examining psychologist had recommended neuropsychological evaluation to evaluate the claimant’s cognitive limitations, an examination of the claimant could not afford, and which had been explicitly declined for coverage by his insurance company, was SSA’s main issue with defending the case. However, the ALJ’s so-called mental RFC for “unskilled work” was inconsistent with SSA’s examining psychologist’s assessment, and the SSA consultant psychologist had described the claimant as limited to only 1 or 2 step tasks, and a review of the step 5 jobs provided by the VE indicated clearly that all of the named jobs required more than 1 or 2 steps, so it may have just been death by a thousand cuts.