Flores

MEMORANDUM **

Angel Flores appeals the district court’s order remanding the case to the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (the “Commissioner”). Both parties agree that the case should be remanded. However, at issue in this appeal is whether the district court erred in remanding the case to the Commissioner to consider lay witness evidence, while simultaneously upholding the administrative law judge’s (“ALJ”) findings with regard to the testimony of Flores and Flores’s physician.

We agree with the district court that the ALJ erred in not considering the lay witness testimony. Nguyen v. Chater, 100 F.3d 1462, 1467 (9th Cir.1996); Dodrill v. Shalala, 12 F.3d 915, 919 (9th Cir.1993). Because of this error, the district court was correct to remand.

However, the lay witness testimony, which both parties agree was improperly ignored, is potentially relevant to all issues in the case, including Flores’s credibility and the significance of Dr. Grimes’s opinion, which relied on medical history provided by Flores. Thus, on remand the ALJ should reconsider all the evidence and make new determinations as to Flores’s credibility and Dr. Grimes’s opinion, in light of the lay…