Perkins v. Astrue, No. 10-3630 (8th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseAppellant appealed the denial of her application for Social Security Administration (SSA) disability benefits where the ALJ concluded that she retained the ability to perform her past relevant work and was therefore not disabled. The court held that the ALJ was not required to give controlling weight to the opinions of appellant's treating physician. The court also held that because there was substantial evidence in the record to support the ALJ's findings, the court declined to disturb the ALJ's decision on the ground that the ALJ failed to comply with the SSA Commissioner's policies in evaluating the severity of appellant's fibromyalgia and that the ALJ failed to give adequate weight to appellant's statements and the statements of her family and friends. The court further held that the ALJ's hypothetical to the vocational expert was proper and there was no evidence in this case to support a finding that bias impacted the ALJ's decision. Accordingly, the Commissioner's final decision to deny appellant's application for benefits was affirmed.
Court Description: Civil case - Social Security. ALJ did not err in discounting medical opinion of treating physician where it was inconsistent with other evidence, including the doctor's own records; ALJ properly evaluated claimant's fibromyalgia and her claims of disabling pain; hypothetical question posed to the vocation expert was not erroneous; claim that the ALJ was biased against claimants with certain conditions was not established by the record or statistical analysis of the ALJ's decisions.
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