While extremely rare, if the required information cannot be obtained from other medical evidence, an administrative law judge (ALJ), the claimant, or the claimant's representative, with the ALJ’s approval, may submit written interrogatories that require written answers to specific questions to:

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  a Disability Determination Services (DDS) medical or psychological consultant,

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  consultative examination (CE) source, or

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  other DDS personnel member.

After reviewing the requested interrogatory or interrogatories to ensure their relevance to the issues in the case, the ALJ will submit them with a cover letter requesting the DDS’ or CE source’s answers. The DDS is not required to respond to written interrogatories that come directly from a claimant or a claimant’s representative.

Develop written interrogatory responses using the following procedures:

1. 1. 

   If applicable, the DDS medical or psychological consultant, CE source, or other DDS personnel member must review(s) the evidence in the electronic file for the determination in question, or review(s) copies of the evidence from the paper file forwarded by the ALJ.

2. 2. 

   The DDS medical or psychological consultant, CE source, or other DDS personnel member must make every reasonable effort to respond within the time-frame set by the ALJ. The DDS may contact the ALJ to request an extension if needed.

3. 3. 

   Request an ALJ “ruling of necessity” for any questions believed to impose an unwarranted burden in terms of DDS time or other resources, or regarding any problems caused by the scope of a question.

4. 4. 

   The DDS medical or psychological consultant, CE source, or other DDS personnel member must respond(s) to the specific questions. A simple “do not know” may be used if applicable. The DDS medical or psychological consultant, CE source, or other DDS personnel member should contact the ALJ if additional information from the paper disability file is required to enable an adequate response. The DDS medical or psychological consultant, CE source, or other DDS personnel member must send the completed response, on appropriate letterhead, to the ALJ (with a copy for the paper disability file if applicable). If the DDS receives additional information after the initial response, it must prepare supplementary answers to interrogatories following the instructions in this section.

5. 5. 

   The DDS medical or psychological consultant, CE source, or other DDS personnel member must notify the Assistant Regional Commissioner, Management and Operations Support (ARC-MOS), for coordination with the Office of Hearings Operations (OHO) regional office if there are any interrogatory-related problems which cannot be resolved through direct contact with the ALJ. If the DDS medical or psychological consultant, CE source, or other DDS personnel member need legal guidance in responding to the interrogatories, they should contact the ARC-MOS.