Opinion ID: 3187989
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Testimony at Administrative Hearing

Text: -8- Michel filed an application for disability insurance benefits on October 5, 2010, alleging an onset date of October 22, 2009. After an initial denial of benefits, Michel requested a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ). At the hearing, Michel testified that she last worked as a speech pathologist at the Mississippi Bend Area Education Agency in October 2009. According to Michel, she stopped working due to flu-like symptoms and fibromyalgia pain; she stated that she could no longer write or type for more than five minutes at a time. She testified to having pain from the top of [her] neck all the way down through [her] ankles, not every single spot, but probably 80 percent of that area. She also reported having fatigue that made it difficult for her to concentrate and focus. She explained that she tries to walk for approximately ten minutes in the morning for exercise but becomes short of breath and achy. She estimated that she could lift 15 to 20 pounds very briefly. The ALJ provided vocational expert (VE) Julie Svec with a hypothetical for an individual with Michel's age, education, and past relevant work and who has some functional limits, mainly that the worker is limited to performing sedentary work as that term is defined in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles [(DOT)], and in addition, this worker can only occasionally stoop, crouch, kneel and crawl, and the worker is unable to climb ladders, ropes or scaffolds at all. The ALJ also asked the VE to assume that the individual could not be exposed to any extraordinary hazards on the job, . . . mean[ing] work near dangerous moving machinery or work at unprotected heights where someone sort of lost control of her body or lost strength or for whatever reason they would be in serious danger. The ALJ asked the VE  to assume that this worker needs work indoors in a climate-controlled environment much like would be found in a typical office setting or retail store, something like that, air-conditioned, heated with no real dust, gases. Finally, the ALJ asked the VE to assume that this worker can do only the most simple and repetitive and routine types of work, work -9- that doesn't require any close attention to detail at all and doesn't require the use of any independent judgment on the job. The VE replied that [t]here is an occupational base that would include sedentary and unskilled jobs such as work as a document preparer, pursuant to DOT 249.587-018. The VE identified 500 document-preparer positions in this area and 50,000 positions nationwide. The VE also identified a ticket checker as another sedentary, unskilled position, pursuant to DOT 219.587-010. She testified that 400 ticket-checker positions existed in this area and that 13,000 positions existed nationwide. Finally, she gave an order clerk as a third example of a sedentary, unskilled position, pursuant to DOT 209.567-014. She identified 400 order-clerk positions in this area and 23,000 positions nationwide. The ALJ then provided the VE with a second hypothetical, which was identical to the first hypothetical, except that due to fatigue, the worker would be unable to use their [sic] hands to perform any job task whatsoever, in other words[,] cannot grasp, finger, handle anything at all more than a total of two hours a workday. The VE testified that under such limitations, no occupational base would exist for that individual.