The Opelika Social Security Disability Lawyers of Carmichael Law Group LLC are pleased to report in Munroe v. Colvin, 2:13-CV-202 (M.D. Ala. May 14, 2014), the Honorable Judge Walker for the Middle District of Alabama recently determined that the ALJ committed reversible error in rejecting the medical opinions expressed by the treating physician. In our brief before the Court, we argued that the ALJ’s general statement that the treating physician opinion was ‘neither consistent with nor supported by the other evidence of record’ was not sufficient rationale when the ALJ did not indicate what specific evidence conflicted with the treating physician’s opinion.
In agreeing that the ALJ’s reasoning rejecting the treating physician’s opinion was in error, the Court wrote that “[t]he ALJ’s failure to cite the specific evidence of record that he found to be inconsistent with [the treating physician’s] opinion or to state with sufficient particularity how the opinions expressed on the PCE and pain forms [were] inconsistent with each other given the difference in the assessments solicited by each form preclude[d] meaningful judicial review.” As such, the Court reversed and remanded the case back to Social Security for further administrative proceedings to address the error of law.
We are very happy that the Court agreed with our position that the ALJ erred in evaluating the medical opinions expressed by the treating physician. We look forward to the opportunity to aggressively argue on our client’s behalf at the new administrative hearing. If you live in Alabama and your claim has recently been denied by the Appeals Council, we would by happy to review your matter to determine whether or not we could help you file a civil action in Federal Court.