1) First, if your judge asked a bunch of leading questions that seem to suggest that you are disabled. What is a leading question? A leading question is a question that suggests the answer, such as “You’re feeling good, right?” or “You have a hard time getting up in the morning, don’t you?” Those are leading type questions. And if the judge starts to ask a lot of them, and it seems that the judge is building a case that you are disabled, then that’s a great sign.
2) The second way that you can know that your hearing went well is if the judge asks your lawyer to amend the Alleged Onset Date. By amending the Alleged Onset Date, the judge is basically saying, I think this person might be disabled. They are asking the lawyer to help save them time when they write the decision. If the judge just wants to deny a case, they don’t ask the attorney to amend the Alleged Onset Date, they just deny the case. If they might grant a case, they’ll ask the attorney to amend the Alleged Onset Date.
3) And the third way that you know that your case might have gotten granted at your Social Security Disability hearing, is if the vocational expert does not list any jobs that a hypothetical person could do. If the Social Security Administration is going to deny your case on medical grounds, they have to be able to show that there are jobs available for you to do. So if in response to the judge’s hypotheticals, the vocational expert says that no jobs are available, then there’s a good chance your case was granted, at least on medical grounds.