Flowers v. Barnhart

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

KOPF, Chief District Judge.

This is a social security case. Although badly briefed by the government, this appeal raises an important and difficult question involving whether the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) was allowed to use evidence of work that the plaintiff engaged in after she claimed she was disabled for the purpose of totally denying insurance benefits. 1 Finding that the ALJ should have first determined whether the plaintiff was entitled to a “trial work period” before he decided to use evidence of that alleged trial work as a basis for entirely denying her…