Opinion ID: 145210
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Grids and Vocational Expert

Text: “There are two avenues by which the ALJ may determine whether the claimant has the ability to adjust to other work in the national economy.” Phillips, 357 F.3d at 1239. First, the ALJ may apply the Medical Vocational Guidelines, commonly known as “the grids,” found in 20 C.F.R. § 404, subpart P, appendix 2. Second, the ALJ may consult a vocational expert, or VE, by posing hypothetical questions to the VE to establish whether someone with the claimant’s impairments would be able to find employment. Id. at 1239-40. The grids provide tables based on work classifications of sedentary, light, medium, heavy or very heavy. These classifications are based on the exertional level, or “primary strength activities,” the work requires, such as sitting, standing, walking, lifting, carrying, pushing, and pulling. S.S.R. 83-10. Each table considers vocational factors, such as age, education and work experience, to “direct a conclusion” of either disabled or not disabled. See generally, 20 C.F.R. pt. 404, 6 subpt. P, app. 2 § 200.00(a).6 These tables constitute “administrative notice” as to the number of unskilled jobs that exist in the national economy at the various exertional levels. Thus, when all the claimant’s vocational factors coincide with the criteria in the table, “the existence of jobs is established.” 20 C.F.R. pt. 404, subpt. P, app. 2 § 200.00(b). This Court repeatedly has recognized that “exclusive reliance on the grids is not appropriate either”: (1) “when the claimant is unable to perform a full range of work at a given residual functional level”; or (2) “when a claimant has nonexertional impairments [i.e., impairments not related to strength] that significantly limit basic work skills.”7 See Phillips, 357 F.3d at 1242 (internal brackets omitted); Allen v. Sullivan, 880 F.2d 1200, 1202 (11th Cir. 1989); see also 20 C.F.R. pt. 404, subpt. P, app. 2 § 200.00(a). In either of these cases, the claimant’s occupational base (the number of jobs he is able to perform based on his RFC, age, 6 For example, the table for sedentary work “directs a conclusion” of disabled (i.e., automatically deems the person disabled) when the person is approaching advanced age (defined as between 50 and 54 years old), has not graduated from high school and his previous work was unskilled. However, the table directs a conclusion of not disabled if the same person’s past work was skilled or semi-skilled and those skills are transferable. 20 C.F.R. pt. 404, subpt. P, app. 2 tbl. 1. 7 Nonexertional activities include maintaining body equilibrium, crouching, bending, stooping, using fingers, seeing, hearing or speaking, mental functions and tolerating environmental working conditions. S.S.R. 83-14. Reliance solely on the grids is inappropriate when nonexertional limitations are present because the grids take into account only exertional limitations in classifying levels of work as sedentary, light, medium or heavy and do not address nonexertional limitations. See Sryock v. Heckler, 764 F.2d 834, 836 (11th Cir. 1985). 7 education and work experience) may be affected. See S.S.R. 83-12 (explaining that when a claimant’s exertional limitations do not coincide with a particular exertional level in the grids, the adjudicator may need to consult a vocational expert to determine the extent of any erosion in the occupational base); S.S.R. 8314 (explaining that when nonexertional impairments are present, the occupational base may be significantly narrowed and the ALJ may need to consult a vocational expert). Thus, in these kinds of cases, the ALJ must make an individualized assessment and consult a VE to determine whether there are jobs in the economy the claimant can perform. See Phillips, 357 F.3d at 1242-43. When the ALJ cannot rely solely on the grids, the ALJ nonetheless “may use [the grids] as a framework to evaluate vocational factors, but must also introduce independent evidence, preferably through a vocational expert’s testimony, of existence of jobs in the national economy that the claimant can perform.” Wilson v. Barnhart, 284 F.3d 1219, 1227 (11th Cir. 2002); see also Smith v. Bowen, 792 F.2d 1547, 1554-55 (11th Cir. 1986) (stating that the grids “may serve as a framework for consideration of the combination of the exertional and nonexertional limitations”). The regulations likewise recognize that the grids can “still provide guidance for decisionmaking.” 20 C.F.R. pt. 404, subpt. P, app. 2 8 § 200.00(d); accord id. § 200.00(e)(2).8