If you are considering applying for Social Security disability benefits, a disability representative may be able to help you prepare for your hearing. One of the decisions you may have to make is whether you want to appear at your hearing in person or by video.
The Social Security Administration prefers video hearings and has been trying to push for their use for some time. They have been sending out brochures encouraging claimants to go with a video hearing because, “except for the equipment, a video hearing is no different than a hearing at which you appear in person.” However, generally no one else likes video hearings, and claimants like the opportunity to tell their story in person.
Video recording equipment makes the experience and nature of the hearing fundamentally different. If you appear in person, you are real, three-dimensional, and immediate to the Administrative Law Judge. If you appear by video, you become distant, incorporeal, and two-dimensional. However, appearing by video allows you the chance to get your hearing sooner, which may be something to take into consideration.
If you do not wish to appear by video, Social Security regulations allow the Administrative Law Judge to change the time or place of your hearing, and may reschedule the hearing to accommodate your availability. This gives you veto power over your own video appearance.
The same does not apply to testimony from experts you may wish to call for you appearance. While you have the ability to refrain from using video teleconferencing if you wish (the rules give you “good cause” for nor appearing in person), the rules do not grant the same leeway to experts; no such “good cause” provision exists for experts, and the regulations do not specify anything that would constitute “good cause” to have an expert witness appear in person. This makes it very rare that an ALJ will reschedule a hearing to allow an expert witness to testify in person.