© James Publishing

YOURDAILY ACTIVITIES

ABOUTTESTIFYING

At your hearing, expect the judge to ask

How do you spend a usual day?

The judge will use your answer to figure out whether your daily activities are consistent with the symptoms and limitations you describe. If you claim to have trouble walking because of pain in your legs, but you testify that you often go dancing, the judge is going to doubt your testimony.

Why the judge wants to know

The judge’s questioning about your daily activities provides you with a golden opportunity to help your case by giving a lot of details.

Details are crucial

Don’t tell the judge you spend the day doing “nothing.” Sitting and staring at a television set is doing something; sitting and staring out the window is doing something. So describe to the judge what you do.

“Nothing” is a bad answer

An answer like this will not help your case because it leaves out all of the important details about how your limitations have affected what you are able to do.

“Oh, I do some cleaning, cooking, straightening up the house, sometimes some laundry and going to the store.”

But don’t do it this way

If you stop and think about it, you’ll probably be able to come up with a long list of things you do differently now than you did before you became disabled. These things are important because they show how your disability has affected your life.

Run through your usual day hour by hour. Emphasize everything that you do differently now because of your health problems.

Help the judge “live” your day

Tell how long it takes you to do a project now compared to how long it used to take you.

Describe how long you do an activity and how long you rest afterwards. Tell where you rest, whether it’s sitting or lying down, whether it’s on the couch or the bed or a recliner chair.

Describe how long each activity takes and how you feel afterwards

Describe all those things that you can’t accomplish without help from other people — and tell who those other people are and what help they provide.

Explain what you need help with

“The only cleaning I do now is a little dusting and wiping the counters. I can clean for only 10 minutes at a time, then I have to sit down and rest for 20 minutes. I cook frozen meals in the microwave because I can’t stanstand in the kitchen long enough to do anything more elaborate. My husband does the laundry because I can’t lift the baskets or bend over to get things out of the dryer. When I shop, I always take my teenage son with me to carry ththe groceries.”

Here’s a better answer

When the judge asks, “How do you spend your day?”

Don’t say “Doing nothing.”

Run though a typical day hour by hour.

Describe everything you do differently since you became disabled.

Describe how long you can do an activity for, how you feel afterwards, and how long you must rest.

DescribDescribe how long it takes you to do something compared with how long it took before you became disabled.

Describe all the activities you now need help with and who helps you.

Provide lots of details.

To recap

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