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As a disability examiner, I found it frustating when claimants missed their appointments for medical examinations. Actually, I take that back. I didn't find it frustrating when someone whose case I was working on missed one appointment to be examined. I found it frustrating when they missed two or three. Obviously, since they managed to be given as many three appointments for the same examination, social security is fairly lenient when it comes to missing such appointments. However, with disability hearings things are not so lenient. Often, the consequences of missing a scheduled Social Security disability hearing may be severe. One consequence of missing your Social Security disability hearing may be...that you will have to begin the entire disability process again. This is a worst case scenario, of course, since claimants who fail to show for a hearing who have a valid reason such as illness or transportation problems will usually be rescheduled. However, people who miss their hearings without good cause can have their cases dismissed. This means having to file another initial claim and begin the appeal process again, in order to reach the administrative law judge hearing level again. In other words, up to three more years. But, even those individuals who are given a rescheduled hearing date may have to wait several months for another chance at having their case heard by an administrative law judge. The message should be very clear. Under no circumstances, short of an absolute last minute true emergency, should you ever miss your disability hearing. What are some generally accepted good cause reasons for missing a hearing? Sickness, the inability to find the hearing office, a ride that falls through at the last moment, and a family emergency are common reasons. Another one, though, is...not even knowing that you have a hearing. Yes, situations occur in which claimants are not even aware they have a hearing. Sometimes, this happens because a hearing notice was lost in the mail, and sometimes it happens because the claimant moved and failed to notify all the relevant parties (including the social security office, the hearing office, and the attorney if there is one). This, in itself, of course, is an argument for representation at the hearing level. If you have a representative, the Social Security disability hearings office will send them a notification of your hearing date when they send you your notification. At that point, most representatives also send a notification of the hearing of their own to your address. This actually serves as a failsafe to make sure that you actually become aware of when and where your hearing is. Also, most representatives will ask that the claimant contact their office to verify that they did, in fact, receive notification of the hearing. If they do not receive this confirmation from the claimant, they will then attempt to contact the claimant by phone. Which, obviously, can be frustrating if a claimant has moved and failed to notify anyone. Remember, your representative must have a current address and phone number to effectively represent you. Additionally, when you receive your notification from your representative, it is wise to let them know that you are planning to attend your hearing, or may have trouble getting there. If you have a scheduling conflict, your representative can usually get your administrative law judge disability hearing rescheduled at that point. Failing to attend your Social Security hearing can dramatically affect your chances of winning Social Security disability benefits. At the very least, your hearing will be rescheduled and that could add months to the overall processing of your disability claim. And, at the very worst, you will have to begin the disability process again. 
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