James Hess, Jr. v. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, United States of America

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• recognizing that although the SSA provides an applicant with assistance to prove his claim, the ALJ does not have a duty to search for all of the relevant evidence available, because such a requirement would shift the burden of proof
• explaining that the purposes of the Act may require that an ALJ seek additional evidence, suggest to the claimant that additional evidence be submitted at a later time, or secure further medical evaluations
• ordering remand to further develop the record because “readily obtainable information was not secured so as to resolve doubts” about the plaintiff’s right to disability benefits
• ALJ does not have duty to search for all of the relevant evidence available, because such a requirement would shift burden of proof
• ALJ’s failure to secure “readily obtainable information” to resolve doubts about entitlement to disability benefits deprived unrepresented claimant of a fair hearing
• pro se claimant was deprived of a full and fair hearing where the ALJ failed to secure readily obtainable evidence to resolve doubts about his right to disability benefits

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).