Sharon R Jarrell v. Commissioner of Social Security

433 F. App'x 812
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 8, 2011
Docket11-10082
StatusUnpublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 433 F. App'x 812 (Sharon R Jarrell v. Commissioner of Social Security) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sharon R Jarrell v. Commissioner of Social Security, 433 F. App'x 812 (11th Cir. 2011).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Sharon Jarrell, through counsel, appeals the district court’s order affirming the Commissioner’s denial of disability insurance benefits, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). On appeal, she argues that: (1) the administrative law judge (“ALJ”) had no evidentiary basis and failed to give adequate reasons for discrediting her pain testimony; and (2) the ALJ failed to include all of her mental and physical limitations in his hypothetical questions to the vocational expert (“VE”). After careful review, we affirm.

Our standard of review of a Social Security case is “demarcated by a deferential reconsideration of the findings of fact and exacting examination of the conclusions of law.” Martin v. Sullivan, 894 F.2d 1520, 1529 (11th Cir.1990). The Commissioner’s factual findings are conclusive if “supported by substantial evidence,” but the “[Commissioner’s] conclusions of law, including applicable review standards, are not presumed valid.” Id. (quotation omitted). Substantial evidence is “more than a scintilla, but less than a preponderance,” in that “it is such relevant evidence as a reasonable person would accept as adequate to support a conclusion.” Id. (alteration and quotation omitted).

The Social Security regulations provide a five-step sequential evaluation process for determining if a claimant has proven that she is disabled. See 20 C.F.R. §§ 404.1520, 416.920. At the first step, the claimant must prove that she has not engaged in substantial gainful activity. At the second step, she must prove that she has an impairment or combination of impairments that is severe. If, at the third step, she proves that her impairment or combination of impairments meets or equals a listed impairment, she is automatically found disabled regardless of age, education, or work experience. If she cannot prevail at the third step, she must proceed to the fourth step, where she must prove that she is unable to perform her past relevant work. If the claimant is unable to do past relevant work, the examiner proceeds to the fifth and final step of the evaluation process to determine whether, in light of residual functional capacity, age, education, and work experience, the claimant can perform other work. Id.; Crayton v. Callahan, 120 F.3d 1217, 1219 (11th Cir.1997).

The ALJ must evaluate a claimant’s subjective complaints of pain or other subjective symptoms using a three-part standard. Holt v. Sullivan, 921 F.2d 1221, 1223 (11th Cir.1991). This “pain standard” requires: “(1) evidence of an underlying medical condition and either (2) objective medical evidence that confirms the severity of the alleged pain arising from that condition or (3) that the objectively determined medical condition is of such a severity that it can be reasonably expected to *814 give rise to the alleged pain.” Id. If the ALJ fails to articulate reasons for discrediting subjective pain testimony, that testimony must be accepted as true. Foote v. Chater, 67 F.3d 1553, 1562 (11th Cir.1995). “A clearly articulated credibility finding with substantial supporting evidence in the record will not be disturbed by a reviewing court.” Id.

The regulations require that all evidence, including subjective statements about the intensity, persistence, and functionally limiting effects of pain, must be considered in addition to the objective medical evidence, laboratory findings, and statements from treating or nontreating sources about how the symptoms affect the claimant in deciding the issue of disability. 20 C.F.R. § 404.1529(c)(4). The ALJ must consider such things as: (1) the claimant’s daily activities; (2) the nature and intensity of pain and other symptoms; (3) precipitating and aggravating factors; (4) the type, dosage, and effectiveness of any medications taken to alleviate pain; (5) treatment or measures taken by the claimant for relief of symptoms; and (6) other factors concerning functional limitations. See 20 C.F.R. § 404.1529(c)(3). Additionally, the ALJ may consider the claimant’s “appearance and demeanor during the hearing” as a basis of credibility, although he cannot impose his observations in lieu of a consideration of the objective medical evidence. Norris v. Heckler, 760 F.2d 1154, 1157-58 (11th Cir.1985).

“The burden of showing by substantial evidence that a person who can no longer perform his former job can engage in other substantial gainful activity is in almost all cases satisfied only through the use of vocational expert testimony” when the medical evidence is inconclusive. Chester v. Bowen, 792 F.2d 129, 132 (11th Cir.1986) (quotation omitted). For a VE’s answer to a hypothetical question to constitute substantial evidence, the question must comprise all of the claimant’s mental and physical limitations. Pendley v. Heckler, 767 F.2d 1561, 1562-63 (11th Cir.1985).

Here, there was substantial evidence to support the ALJ’s decision to discredit Jarrell’s pain testimony. The ALJ explicitly found that Jarrell’s “medically determinable impairments could have been reasonably expected to produce the alleged symptoms, but that [her] statements concerning the intensity, duration and limiting effects of these symptoms [were] not entirely credible.” He properly applied the three-part pain test by finding that there was evidence of an underlying medical condition, but that the objective medical evidence did not confirm the severity of the alleged pain arising from that condition. See Holt, 921 F.2d at 1223. Indeed, as the record shows, there was ample medical evidence in support of the ALJ’s conclusions, including Jarrell’s conservative pain treatment in 1998, her lack of any medical treatment for her pain between February and June 1999, and her lack of prescription pain medication in the pertinent time frame, which weighs against her credibility that her pain was debilitating. See 20 C.F.R. § 404.1529(c)(3). In addition, in making his credibility finding, the ALJ also relied upon his observation of Jarrell’s demeanor at the hearing, which is proper under our case law. See Norris,

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433 F. App'x 812, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sharon-r-jarrell-v-commissioner-of-social-security-ca11-2011.