When preparing for your disability hearing, your Albuquerque disability attorney may ask you who you want to present as witnesses for your testimony. Friends or family who know you well and can talk about your disability will be effective proponents for your claim. However, sometimes a witness will be unable to testify at your hearing in person. In these cases, it may be helpful for the witness to write a written statement instead.
Written statements from lay observers should not be dictated by you or your Albuquerque disability attorney. You cannot know exactly how the witness has perceived or observed your disability and what he or she thinks. For this reason, a form letter that simply says “I have known [the claimant] for several years and know for a fact that he is a hard worker who cannot work because of his disability” is not very helpful.
The statement should be specific to the individual writing it. It should explain how the writer and claimant are related and how long they have been acquainted. The most helpful statement will give as much knowledge and observations relating to your disability as possible. Details such as these make for a good statement:
• I have worked with the claimant together for five years and we have known each other for seven. I witnessed the workplace incident where she fell and injured her back.
• I am well-acquainted with the claimant. I visit her every day to help prepare meals for her family and even help her bathe herself as she is unable to on her own.
• I take the claimant to her regular doctor’s appointment because her anti-pain medication leaves her too dizzy to drive.
• She was a hard worker before the accident that injured her, and she has been struggling financially since she had to leave the job.
• She has stopped going to church and almost never leaves the house due to her disability.
Details such as these can make for a very compelling useful statement that will help establish the severity of your impairment.
For more info on how to file a Social Security disability claim, contact Albuquerque, NM, disability attorneys. Call Michelle Baca, Attorney at Law, at 505-872-1142.
