In this article, a Chicago Social Security disability attorney demonstrates the difference between testimony that is helpful and testimony that is not.
One Example
In the paragraph below, your Chicago Social Security disability lawyer contrasts two versions of a wife’s testimony concerning her husband’s pain.
Poor: Because of his pain, my husband can’t function.
Better: My husband suffers so terribly from his pain that he can’t sleep. He can never get comfortable, takes more pain medications than his doctor has prescribed and then adds aspirin to that with little or no relief. This has been going on since the hospital released him, and it never lets up. We don’t go out any more, he can’t drive or ride in a car as a passenger because of how badly it hurts him. I’ve had to take over the yard work and the shopping because he can’t push the mower or lift the shopping bags. Before his injury, this was never a problem, but now it is. We never visit anybody anymore. He hardly eats, his weight is down by twenty pounds and ever since he was hurt we stopped going to church. He can’t kneel or sit in the pew without the pain forcing him to move. It’s been awful.
Another Case in Point
In the example below, your Chicago Social Security disability lawyer illustrates how a coworker’s and a neighbor’s testimony might be improved.
Poor: [Name’s] disability wouldn’t let him do his job, even when we were working together.
Better: [Name] and I worked in the same department for nearly ten years. Until he got hurt, he was a very hard worker, and even after the injury he did his best in spite of what it cost him. He passed out on two occasions and we had to call an ambulance for him another time. He was moved to a position that didn’t involve as much heavy lifting, but it was hard for him. Everybody tried to help him out, but he couldn’t avoid missing work. I really felt for him, because it really upset him that he couldn’t do his job as well as he wanted to and as well as he’d done it in the past.
Poor: [Name] hasn’t been able to keep her house clean.
Better: [Name] has kept her house spotless for as long as I’ve known her, and that’s been more than twenty years. Since she was hurt a little more than two years ago, though, she’s been letting it slip. I try to come over every week to help out with the wash and I run the vacuum for her. She was a marvelous cook, too, but now she can’t hold a skillet or a saucepan without dropping it. She’s broken several of her dishes. Worst of all, she lost consciousness while she was cooking and fell right onto the stovetop. We had to take her to the emergency room to treat the burns.
Leave Nothing to Chance
Be sure that your testimony and that of your witnesses is all that it should be. Contact us today. Don’t wait another minute.
