Describe Your Daily Activities

At your disability hearing, the judge will likely ask you how you spend a typical day. The judge will then determine whether your daily activities are consistent with your claimed symptoms and limitations. For example, if you claim you can’t walk because of shooting pain in your feet, but you testify that you run a mile every day, the judge isn’t going to believe you’re disabled. For your disability claim, an experienced Denver disability lawyer can help you formulate your testimony most effectively.

The judge’s questions allow you to really sell your case by providing lots of details. So if the judge asks you what you do on a typical day, don’t just say “Nothing.” You probably don’t do “nothing.” Explain to the judge that you typically spend hours watching television, looking out the window, staring at the wall, or lying in your bed.

If the judge asks you what you do on a typical day, don’t say “Laundry, cleaning, cooking, and shopping.” While this technically may be true, provide the details. Explain that you clean for only five minutes and then you have to sit and rest; that you eat only sandwiches because your hands hurt too much to chop anything; that you do the laundry, but only when your daughter can help you carry the clothes; that you go to the store but your son has to carry the groceries.

Describe how long you can perform an activity and how long you have to rest afterwards. Tell the judge that you rest on the couch or in your bed. Describe the projects you can’t complete without help from others. Explain who those other people are and what they do for you.

It may help to explain your typical day on an hourly basis. Tell the judge what time you wake up and what time you go to bed. Emphasize the things that you do differently now because of your disability. These details make your disability more real to the judge.

For the best advice about your disability claim, contact an experienced Denver disability lawyers at Radosevich & Dixon.