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What Happens at a Railroad Retirement Board Hearing?

By Douglas I. Friedman of Friedman Law Firm, P.C.

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Who conducts the Hearing?

Railroad Retirement Board Hearings are different from other disability hearings, such as Social Security and Veterans Compensation,  because they are conducted by a Hearing Officer, not an administrative law judge.

The hearings are held by video with a Hearing Officer located in Chicago. The worker and his or her attorney are in a location remote to the Hearing Officer. For example, we recently had a hearing at a conference center where they had a room fitted with video technology.

Where are hearings held?

Since the hearing location is not controlled by the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), it can vary in quality and appropriate surroundings. You may find, for example, that your venue is not private, and there may be windows onto hallways and lobbies that allow people on the outside to look in. You may also find that noise on the other side of the door and/or walls interferes with your ability to hear the Hearing Officer.

But you can probably assume that the video will be up to RRB standards, otherwise they would probably select another location.

What happens at the hearing?

The Hearing Officer proceeds by asking questions of the disabled worker. The hearings can be quite long -- --; often over an hour. Most of this time is usually the Hearing Officer asking questions. The worker’s lawyer then may ask follow-up questions.

After the worker gives testimony, the next witness is usually a vocational expert (VE). The VE testifies about the kinds of jobs a person can perform based on various assumptions. For example, the Hearing Officer may ask the VE to assume that a person is the same age, education and work history as the claimant. And then to assume further that the claimant has additional limitations, such as the inability to stand and walk for more than four hours per eight hour work day. And the ability to sit more than fours hours in a work day.

After setting out all the assumptions in the hypothetical question, the VE is asked whether a person with those facts could perform their past work, or any other job. The answer to these questions depends on the assumptions given to the VE.

We will describe more about the vocational aspects of a hearing in our next post. If you have any questions about Railroad Retirement Board disability, please email us at lifehealth@FriedmanFirmPC.com or call us at  1-800-728-0434.  We have clients all over the country, so don't hesitate to call!

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