Testimony from witnesses can support your Omaha Social Security disability claim

At your Social Security disability hearing in Omaha, lay testimony–that is, testimony from your friends, family members, former work colleagues, or supervisors–can be important. Testimony and statements made by lay witnesses about a claimant’s restrictions, daily activities, efforts to work, and other issues, are included in the Social Security Administration’s definition of “evidence.”

Topics about which your lay witnesses may testify at your Omaha Social Security disability hearing

–Your past relevant work

Persons who are familiar with your former jobs can testify about your past relevant work. This testimony can be important because you may need to prove that you are no longer able to perform your past relevant work (generally the easiest job that you had in the past 15 years) in order to be entitled to disability benefits.

–Your residual functional capacity

In assessing your residual functional capacity (the work you are still able to do), the Social Security Administration is required to consider descriptions and observations of your limitations provided by your family, neighbors, friends, or other persons.”

– Mental impairments

If you have a mental impairment, lay witnesses may be important in describing your daily activities, social functioning, concentration, persistence or pace, and ability to tolerate stress.

–Pain and other symptoms

The Social Security Administration will consider observations of lay witnesses in evaluating your pain and other symptoms. Family and friends are recognized as sources of information about your daily activities, factors that precipitate and aggravate your symptoms, your functional limitations, your prior work record, your efforts to work, your medical history, and the treatments your have tried and your response to them.

–Reflex sympathetic dystrophy (complex regional pain syndrome)

If you have reflex sympathetic dystrophy, Social Security rulings explicitly permit evidence from neighbors, friends, relatives, clergy, past employers, rehabilitation counselors and teachers regarding your impairment, ability to function on a day-to-day basis, and capacities over a period of time.

–Chronic fatigue syndrome

Similarly, if you suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome, the Social Security rulings specify that information from neighbors, friends, relatives, and clergy, as well as past employers, rehabilitation counselors and teachers, may be very useful in assessing your day-to-day ability to function.

–Onset date of your disability

If medical evidence is not available to establish that date on which your disability began, your Omaha disability attorney can present testimony by family members, friends or former employers regarding this date. Onset date is important because the date on which your benefits will begin is calculated from it.

Choosing your lay witnesses and preparing them to testify

Your Omaha Social Security attorney will consult with you to determine who should testify as lay witnesses in your disability case. Your attorney will probably choose the best one or two witnesses and then provide each lay witness with information about the hearing and the sort of testimony expected.

There really are only a few rules for testifying:

• Tell the truth.
• Don’t exaggerate to try to help the claimant, but don’t minimize either.
• Testify only about things that you have observed.
• Give examples and explain your answers by describing things you have observed.
• Leave arguing the case to the attorney.

Essentially, the witness and your disability attorney will have a conversation about you and your disability. The attorney may ask the lay witness about his or her relationship with you, how long the witness has known you, and how often the witness gets to see you. These questions are to establish the basis for testimony about the witness’s observations.

Sometimes, the judge may ask a lay witness some questions. The judge is simply looking for all the facts in order to decide the case fairly.

Presenting written statements as an alternative to live testimony

If it is impossible to present live testimony from a particular lay witness, your Omaha Social Security lawyer may decide to submit the person’s written statement. To be helpful, the statement should be individual. It should set out the relationship of the writer to you, and the length of time you have known each other. It should indicate how the writer knows about you and should relate knowledge and observations of you in as much detail as possible.

Get help from an Omaha Social Security attorney

Lay witness testimony is one important component of a strong case that an experienced Omaha Social Security attorney can assist you with. If you are not already represented by a Social Security attorney, and you would like my evaluation, provide a brief description of your claim using the form to the right. Or you may contact me at:

Timothy J. Cuddigan
Omaha disability attorney

E-mail me
Phone: 402-397-2000
Toll-free: 877-550-8593
Fax: 402-397-0803

10855 West Dodge Road, Suite 100
Omaha, Nebraska 68154-2666

My offices are located near the Social Security district office in the Old Mill area in Omaha, right off of Dodge Street.




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We can travel to your home if you are unable to visit my offices.