Your disability lawyer will determine the best way to win your case. First, your lawyer will review your denial letter from Social Security to get the agency's reasons it denied your claim so that these issues can be resolved in your favor. (For more information, see our article on denial notices .)
To determine if you meet a listing, your attorney will first see if your illness has a disability listing in Social Security's "blue book." If it does, the attorney will review the requirements of the listing and compare them to the evidence in your case. (For more information, see our section on listed disabilities .)
What Happens When I First Call a Disability Attorney? When you first contact an attorney or law firm for representation, either the attorney or a firm staff member will conduct an initial interview with you to gather the basic facts of the case. These facts are used to help determine if the firm will take your case.
The short answer to this is no. When preparing for a disability hearing, an attorney will frequently receive hundreds of pages of medical records, many of which have nothing to do with your impairment. Your attorney will review the medical records to see what is relevant to your case and submit only that information to Social Security.
The Compassionate Allowances List contains conditions such as rare diseases, cancers, traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stroke, early-onset Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, schizophrenia, cardiovascular disease and multiple organ transplants and autoimmune diseases.
For a Social Security disability (or SSI) case, medical evidence takes many forms, including physician examination and treatment notes, mental health records, bloodwork panels, and reports of imaging studies (MRI, CT scan, and X-rays).
4 Steps to the Social Security Disability Determination ProcessStep 1: Initial Application. To be awarded disability benefits, you first have to assert your right to them. ... Step 2: Reconsideration. ... Step #3: Hearing. ... Step #4: Appeals Council and Beyond.
While the DDS office reviews applications and makes recommendations to the SSA, it is the SSA which makes the final decision to accept or reject claims for disability benefits.
Medical evidence can encompass a variety of information, for example: • Prescriptions. Care plans. Information from professionals such as a GP, hospital doctor, specialist nurse, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, social worker, support worker or counsellor.
If you want to keep yours, here are some tips on how to pass a continuing disability review:Follow Your Treatment Protocol. ... Learn More About Your Condition. ... Answer the Short Form Honestly. ... Keep Copies of Your Medical Records. ... Inform the SSA of Any Change in Address.
What Conditions Automatically Qualify You for Disability?Musculoskeletal disorders (e.g., bone, joint injuries, skeletal spine injuries)Special senses and speech (e.g., visual disorders, blindness)Respiratory disorders (e.g., chronic bronchitis, emphysema, asthma)More items...
Making Statements That Can Hurt Your Claim – Unless you are specifically asked pertinent questions, do not talk about alcohol or drug use, criminal history, family members getting disability or unemployment, or similar topics. However, if you are asked directly about any of those topics, answer them truthfully.
about 3 to 5 monthsGenerally, it takes about 3 to 5 months to get a decision. However, the exact time depends on how long it takes to get your medical records and any other evidence needed to make a decision. * How does Social Security make the decision? We send your application to a state agency that makes disability decisions.
Tips to Improve Your Chances of Getting Disability BenefitsFile Your Claim as Soon as Possible. ... Make an Appeal within 60 Days. ... Provide Full Details of Medical Treatment. ... Provide Proof of Recent Treatment. ... Report your Symptoms Accurately. ... Provide Medical Evidence. ... Provide Details of your Work History.More items...•
Non-medical redeterminations are reviews of all of the non-medical factors of eligibility to determine whether a recipient is still eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and still receiving the correct payment amount.
Typically, claimants can expect to receive Social Security disability award letters within one to two months from the date they're approved, but in many instances, the wait may be significantly shorter, or longer. The timing of award letters depends on what stage of the process you're at—initial application or appeal.
There are three main possible "theories" an attorney can use to do this. Your lawyer can: prove that your condition meets a disability "listing". prove that you "grid" out of all work (including not being able to do your past work) prove that your non-exertional limitations prevent you from working, or.
Your attorney or nonattorney advocate will request the medical records needed to win your claim and submit them to the Social Security Administration (SSA) at the appropriate time before your hearing.
At the disability hearing, your lawyer will ask you ask you a series of questions called "hypotheticals." These hypotheticals are designed to rule out the possibility that you can work any type of job due to the limitations imposed by your condition. For more information, see our article on how an attorney uses hypotheticals at a disability hearing. (Also, you may want to learn more in general about what to expect at your disability hearing .)
If your attorney thinks additional testing is needed to meet the listing, he or she may request that an SSA doctor examine you or that you schedule the necessary tests with your physician. If your condition does not seem likely to meet the listing, the attorney will look to other possible theories.
To prove you are not capable of sedentary work, your attorney will use the documented symptoms of your illness, the opinions of your treating doctors, your testimony, and any other objective medical evidence in your file to show why you can't do various sit-down jobs. For example, if your doctor has said that you can't lift more than 10 pounds or sit more than two hours per day, this will help prove that you are capable of "less than sedentary work," meaning that Social Security will have to find you disabled. (For more information, see our article on "less than sedentary" status.
First, your lawyer will review your denial letter from Social Security to get the agency's reasons it denied your claim so that these issues can be resolved in your favor. (For more information, see our article on denial notices .)
Because Social Security frequently dictates the type of exam needed to win a claim for disability, a legal professional will review your medical records to determine whether you need to undergo additional testing. The legal professional may ask the SSA to schedule a consultative examination (CE) with one of their doctors or ask that you get the required testing done on your own, if need be.
The conditions that qualify for Compassionate Allowances include many cancers, ALS, some types of muscular dystrophy and muscular atrophy, early-onset Alzheimer's disease, and a few other illnesses. For some conditions, like esophageal cancer, ALS, or an organ transplant, a diagnosis alone (with supporting evidence) is enough to qualify you ...
You can receive a positive award decision in as little as 10 days from when you first filed your application. The average processing time for Social Security to process a compassionate allowance case is 19 days.
The Compassionate Allowances program provide benefits quickly to disability applicants whose medical conditions are so serious that it's clear they would qualify for disability under an SSA impairment listing. The program allows Social Security to quickly target the most obviously disabled applicants and grants them benefits soon after applying.
While Compassionate Allowances allows a disability determination to be made more quickly, SSDI beneficiaries still have to wait five months after their disability onset date to begin receiving benefits (and 24 months after their onset date before Medicare benefits begin).
Compassionate Allowances (CAL) and Quick Disability Determination (QDD) are two separate processes that can overlap as your case is being decided. Compassionate Allowances naturally follow a fast track, and Quick Disability Determination is another method that Social Security uses to process other claims expeditiously. Learn more about Quick Disability Determinations.
Social Security also expedites claims where the impairment is a terminal illness. Learn more about the terminal illness program (TERI).
In response to complaints about long disability determination delays, the Social Security Administration now offers a Compassionate Allowances program for disabled workers who have applied for Social Security disability benefits (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
How to prove to Social Security that you can't do other work because you don't have the transferable job skills. Getting Disability by Arguing You Can't Even Do Sedentary Work. If you have physical or mental limitations that prevent you from doing even sit-down work, you should be approved for disability benefits.
Most hearing strategies center around proving you have such reduced functional capacity that you can't do your prior job or any other job. But the devil is in the details.
Proving You Can't Do Your Past Work. You'll have to prove to Social Security that you don't have the RFC to be able to perform your past job as you performed it or as it's generally performed. Only certain past jobs can be counted when Social Security considers what transferable job skills you have.
Robert Gonzales, chair of the ABA Commission on Disability Rights, says the group has created a pledge for legal employers to sign: Disability Diversity in the Legal Profession: A Pledge for Change.
Gwal refers to her disability as invisible because no one can immediately identify it. That’s why she openly discusses her condition as part of her leadership roles with the ABA and SABA North America. She is scheduled to appear on an ABA panel next month to talk about her company’s inclusion efforts for people who have disabilities.
This article was published in the January 2018 issue of the ABA Journal with the title "Making Success Accessible: Attorneys who have disabilities are breaking down barriers in the legal profession."
Goraya achieved high grades and earned a law degree from the University of Michigan. She is now a staff attorney with the Disability Rights Project of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. She also helped create the ABA Young Lawyers Division’s Disability Rights Committee and was on the board of the National Association of Attorneys with Disabilities.
Goraya is among a growing number of lawyers with disabilities who have advocated for disability rights in the legal community. They have climbed the ranks to prominent jobs and helped smooth the road for the next generation. In the 50 years since the first disability rights victories were achieved in court, these lawyers have been helped by the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, emergence of new technology specifically for them, and a shift in societal attitudes, she says. (For more, see “ Action for Access .”)
But many legal tech companies still have to make their products accessible to attorneys who have disabilities. When the organizers of the ABA Techshow 2016 conducted a survey of vendors, of the 79 respondents, eight could confirm that their products were accessible.
Gonzales agrees with Goraya that new technology has had a major impact on lawyers who have disabilities. Many companies and organizations, including the ABA, are upgrading their websites to make them more accessible.
A good disability lawyer will develop the best theory of disability for winning your case, prepare you for your hearing, and arrange for witnesses. Hearing approval rates are about twice as high for applicants who bring lawyers. To learn how a disability lawyer handles other aspects of your case and appeal hearing, see our article on how disability attorneys will handle your claim.
A good disability firm will sort through your medical records, know which additional tests or statements to request, and deal with evidence that may harm your case. Click for a free case evaluation with a legal professional, to see if they can help you win your case.
The short answer to this is no. When preparing for a disability hearing, an attorney will frequently receive hundreds of pages of medical records, many of which have nothing to do with your impairment. Your attorney will review the medical records to see what is relevant to your case and submit only that information to Social Security.
Social Security regulations and ethics rules require a disability attorney to submit all relevant evidence to Social Security.
When trying to prove that you can do what Social Security calls "less than sedentary work," your attorney will need medical evidence to prove that you have certain functional limitations, like not being able to lift ten pounds or needing to lie down frequently during the day.
Fortunately, an experienced disability attorney is trained to handle "bad facts." For example, if your records contain opinions by a physician or other medical provider that do not support the fact that you have a true disability and are unable to work, your attorney will ask you questions aimed at limiting the importance of and/or eroding the accuracy of the doctor's statement. For instance, your lawyer may ask you how long you had been a patient of the doctor, whether the doctor was a specialist in your illness, and whether you sought a second opinion.
If your records contain statements about drug or alcohol abuse, it will be especially important for your lawyer to explain to the ALJ what you are doing to treat your addiction. An ALJ will appreciate that both you and your attorney are straightforward about the "bad evidence" and may agree with your position.