Your client's disability insurance company schedules a Functional Capacity Examination (FCE); what do you do? This is often a judgment call. On the one hand, an FCE almost always results in a bad result for your client. If your client is able to perform the tasks assigned, the examiner will pronounce that your client is not disabled. If your client is not able to perform the tasks, the examiner will pronounce that your client gave sub-maximal effort. On the other hand, if your client refuses to go to the FCE, the insurer will either terminate your client's benefits for failure to cooperate or will schedule an independent medical examination (IME). An IME is often harder to discredit later than the FCE. FCE's can often be discredited because: the protocol that they apply has not been subjected to peer review; asks claimants to perform tasks that are completely unrelated to their occupations; and are just downright unscientific. It is a great leap in logic to project from the ability to perform certain discrete physical tasks on one or two particular days to the ability to perform a full time occupation (that involves cognitive tasks and time pressures) on a consistent basis day after day.
