Eight Circuit Says No Right To Cross-Examine

A panel of the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals held yesterday in Passmore v. Astrue that a disability claimants has no absolute right to cross-examine a consultative physician who examined a claimant at the behest of the Social Security Administration and who issued a report adverse to the claimant. This is at odds with the decisions of some other Courts of Appeals and even with a prior panel of the Eight Circuit. The Passmore panel went to some effort to avoid prior precedent. I would read the Court's analysis of the issue of whether it was an abuse of discretion to deny Mr. Passmore's request to cross examine the physician to mean that a claimant simply has no right to cross-examine the author of an adverse consultative examination report under just about any circumstance.

I have no idea whether this case is an appropriate vehicle for Supreme Court review -- Social Security filed the appeal in the case suggesting that the underlying case might not be that strong -- but this issue may be headed for the Supreme Court.