Choosing A Vocational Expert Witness

A workplace injury can have lasting effects on your life. One second you’re thriving, the next you’re wondering whether you’ll ever return to work again. 

This happens all the time, and when you’re looking to receive workplace injury benefits, you have to ensure that you can prove the extent of your disabilities. This is where a vocational expert witness California is helpful.

Your attorney may retain this expert to provide testimony in your workers’ compensation or disability case to help you receive the benefits that you rightfully deserve.

What Do These Experts Do?

In a nutshell, a vocational expert witness California is an integral asset in workers’ comp or disability hearings. They help demonstrate whether or not you can do any work with your current limitations.

These expert witnesses have a deep knowledge of the conditions in the labor market, the range of occupations, and the impact of injuries on a worker’s employability. 

The opinion they present in a hearing offers an educated insight into the longevity of the injuries and their impact on any future job performance, as well as any accommodations that need to be made in the workplace.

Since these experts generally hold rehabilitation counseling and have experience working with disabled people, your attorney can schedule a meeting with the expert. 

Here, the vocational expert witness California will subject you to a variety of tests that may deal with your dexterity or hand-eye coordination, among other things.

Generally, in disability claim hearings, the Social Security Administration may call upon a vocational expert to testify on their behalf. 

Their Role In A Disability Claim Hearing

When filing a disability claim, there is a chance your initial application will get denied. Your next course of action will be to appeal your claim. The key step in this process is the hearing in front of an Administrative Law Judge.

This is where you may encounter a vocational expert for the first time.

The expert witness may testify on different things, including the types of jobs in your geographic location and how many job opportunities are available. They’ll also address the skills required to complete those jobs successfully. Lastly, they will offer their educated opinion to the judge on whether you can do these jobs in regard to your limitations.

Before the appeal hearing, the vocational expert will review your medical records and listen to the testimony you give at the hearing. They’ll use this information to inform the court if you can now perform the job you had in the past when you have physical limitations.

They will also discuss any additional skills you can learn that improve your employability if they feel you cannot complete the tasks essential to any of the jobs available to you with your disabilities.

The judge and your attorney will ask the vocational experts questions during the testimony. These will be framed as hypotheticals and will clarify the facts about your disability and the type of work you can do.

For instance, the judge may pose a question such as ‘’what positions could a person with the same work history, age, and education as the claimant could hold if they were unable to lift more than 15 pounds and couldn’t bend over?’’

Why Your Attorney Should Hire An Expert

The experts contracted by the Social Security Administration should be impartial, but more often than not, they’re everything but. For starters, they’re contracted by the administration so they are getting paid for their work. To make matters worse, they can testify the way the administrative law judge wants them to testify.

Additionally, these experts may never see the claimant in person, review their records, or hear their testimony. 

Since these vocational experts are biased, their testimony can tank your chances of receiving the benefits you rightfully deserve. To counteract this testimony and avoid this problem, your attorney may retain a vocational expert witness California to help your case.

They need to work closely with your attorney to prepare for appearing in front of the judge by properly evaluating the case before the hearing. This means assessing your earning capacity and employability while also considering your future medical needs.

Choosing A Vocational Expert Witness California

With that said, there are skills that your attorney may look for in a vocational expert. The first one is a no-brainer, and it’s the qualifications of the expert.

For instance, you do want to make sure that the expert is credible enough to testify about the damages in your case. 

This is especially important as their qualifications will be used as fodder in cross-examination. In other words, it’s going to be important to establish if the expert can give the court helpful information about the damages and the injuries.

The second thing your attorney will look for in a vocational expert witness California is their experience. 

This applies both to spotting trends in the current job market and their skills in answering hypothetical questions at the hearing. It takes some effort and ability to provide sufficient answers that can actually help your case, especially since the state of the economy and job market is constantly changing.

OAS Vocational Expert Witness California

Through the years, many attorneys who were in need of expert witnesses gave their trust to OAS. Not only do we offer assessments at no additional cost and leave no stone unturned while doing so, but we also estimate the loss of your earning capacity. 

The two comprehensive reports (vocational and earning capacity reports) will go a long way in proving your limitations when you’re in front of an administrative law judge.

The experts working at OAS have four decades of experience helping individuals who have suffered catastrophic workplace injuries, so there’s no reason why we can’t use our extensive experience to help you.

If you require a vocational expert witness California, fill out our online form and rest easy knowing that you’ll have someone fighting on your behalf on the day of your hearing.