Jackie Rochelle Jashurek v. Commissioner of Social Security

Summary

This Report and Recommendation addresses Jackie Rochelle Jashurek’s challenge to the Commissioner of Social Security’s denial of Disability Insurance Benefits. The magistrate judge recommends a sentence-six remand under 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) for consideration of new and material epilepsy-related medical evidence submitted after the administrative proceedings, with administrative closure subject to reopening. The matter is before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division.

Holdings

1. Evidence is new for purposes of a sentence-six remand when it was not in existence or available to the claimant at the time of the administrative proceeding. The records submitted by Plaintiff qualified as new because most postdated the hearing and the remaining record supported that they were not available to her during the proceeding.
2. Plaintiff established good cause for failing to submit the updated treatment records before the ALJ issued the decision.
3. The late-submitted epilepsy treatment records were material because there was a reasonable probability that the ALJ would have reached a different disposition had the records been considered.
4. The matter should be remanded under sentence six of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g) for further proceedings and reconsideration of the updated treatment records, without a substantive determination regarding the ultimate disability entitlement.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the late-submitted epilepsy treatment records were new evidence under sentence six of 42 U.S.C. § 405(g).
2. Whether Plaintiff established good cause for failing to submit the records during the prior administrative proceeding.
3. Whether the late-submitted records were material because there was a reasonable probability that consideration of them would have changed the disability determination.
4. Whether the matter should be remanded for further proceedings and reconsideration of the updated evidence.

Disposition

other