Leon

The credit-as-true analysis has evolved in our circuit over time, thus providing a challenge for application by the district court. The rule itself permits, but does not require, a direct award of benefits on review but only where the administrative law judge (ALJ) has not provided sufficient reasoning for rejecting testimony .and there are no outstanding issues on which further proceedings in the administrative court would be useful. Then, and only under these circumstances, if a claimant’s testimony is credited as true an award of benefits may be appropriate. Treichler v. Comm'r of Soc. Sec. Admin., 775 F.3d 1090, 1101-02 (9th Cir. 2014). Once the claimant’s testimony on the severity of his symptoms is credited as true, see Varney v. Secretary of Health & Hyman Services., 859 F.2d 1396, 1400-01 (9th Cir. 1988), then the court should “determine whether the record, taken as a whole, leaves ‘not the slightest uncertainty as to the outcome of [the] proceeding.’ ” Treichler, 775 F.3d at 1101 , quoting NLRB v. Wyman-Gordon Co., 394 U.S. 759 , 766 n. 6, 89 S.Ct. 1426 , 22 L.Ed.2d 709 (1969). An automatic award of benefits in a disability benefits case is a rare and…