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A huge mistake in a social security disability or SSI disability claim is not preparing for a disability hearing. What does a lack of preparation for a hearing entail? Here's a short list. 1. Failing to learn the location of the hearing site. Amazingly, a certain percentage of claimants will not familiarize themselves with where their hearing is scheduled to be held. As a consequence, some claimants will, on the day of the hearing, fail to arrive on time. The danger in such a scenario is obvious. Failing to arrive on time can potentially mean that a hearing will need to be rescheduled, perhaps months later. Losing months on a disability claim, for some individuals, can mean the difference between financial solvency and losing everything. How late is "too late" when it comes to arriving at a social security hearing? Some adminstrative law judges will, as a habit, keep a fairly tight schedule, meaning that showing up even ten minutes late can result in a forfeiture of a hearing time. Therefore, some sound advice any disability claimant should follow is this: prior to the day of the hearing, make sure you know where the hearing location is. In fact, if possible, you may wish to make a "dry run" to make absolutely sure you know how to get there and what the possible traffic conditions may resemble on the day of your hearing. 2. Failing to familiarize yourself with your own file. This is not an issue for claimants who are represented by a disability lawyer or a non-attorney claimant's representative since they will normally, as a matter of preparing for your hearing, obtain a copy of your file and review it. However, for claimants who do not have disability representation, it is certainly a wise idea to review the case file before the hearing takes place. Claimants, of course, who show up at a hearing unrepresented, will be given the opportunity to review the file immediately before the hearing takes place. However, it is doubtful that any claimant will be able to discern anything of value by simply accessing the information in their file minutes before the start of their hearing. Claimants who do not have representation are entitled to see their own file at any point prior to their disability hearing and should consider doing so for the following reasons: to see what medical evidence was used in prior decisions (i.e. denials at the initial claim and reconsideration levels), what work history information was used, and how their past jobs were classified (for example, medium, light, or sedentary work activity). Of course, to gain a better understanding of what is in the file, a claimant should do this as soon as possible. In practical terms, this might mean immediately after a hearing request has been submitted, though attorneys will often wait to get a hard copy of a file until an exhibit list has been compiled by a social security hearing office. 3. Failing to get updated medical records that should be submitted to the hearing office. Many claimants, perhaps most, do not realize that after a formal request for hearing has been submitted, the social security administration will not do further development on their case, i.e. SSA will make no further attempts to gather medical evidence. Basically, this type of medical development stops as soon as a disability claim is denied at the reconsideration level (the next level being the disability hearing). For this reason, it is crucial that a disability claimant should obtain medical record updates and send these in to the hearing office (making sure to keep a personal copy, of course, in case something gets lost in the mail). Since a hearing date can take up to two years, without the gathering and submission of medical record updates a claimant could easily show up at a hearing with medical records that are two years out-of-date. Claimants who do not have representation for a hearing should make a goal to begin gathering medical record updates as soon as they learn that their social security disability hearing date has been set. This is a practical approach since, until the hearing date is known, a claimant who is gathering their own records could find themselves in the position of perpetually requesting copies of records following each doctor or hospital visit (something that highly aggravates medical record departments and tends to make them less cooperative over time). By contrast, claimants who are represented will not need to go through the process of gathering records (which includes sending the requests, accompanied by signed releases, and then doing periodic followups on their status) because this will be the job of the disability attorney and his staff. Typically, attorneys will go to substantial lengths to obtain medical record documentation for all doctor and hospital visits that have occurred since the denial of the reconsideration (which is about when the social security administration will have stopped gathering records for the development of the file). Attorneys will also ensure that copies of such records will be delivered to the administrative law judge who has been assigned to hear the case. Additionally, disability attorneys will usually attempt to obtain detailed, supporting statements from a claimant's treating physicians since such statements can carry great weight at a hearing and can even form the core basis for an approval. 
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