When you hired your lawyer or law firm, you signed a contract called a fee agreement that allows the lawyer or law firm to collect a fee of 25%, or up to $6,000, from any disability back payments awarded to you.
If you are unhappy with your current representation, you should speak to your attorney and explain your dissatisfaction. Often, an honest conversation with your counsel will allay your concerns and avoid the hassle, risk, and expense involved in hiring a new disability attorney.
If your lawyer agrees, ask her to notify Social Security that she is withdrawing from the case and is waiving the fee. You should also notify Social Security that you don't want your current disability lawyer to represent you.
If you hire a new attorney, both attorneys will have to file a fee petition detailing the time spent on your case in order to get paid. If the fee petition is granted, the court is not bound by the 25% maximum fee; therefore, you may end up paying more in attorneys' fees than if you had stayed with your original attorney.
Disability claimants sometimes become frustrated with their legal representatives because it takes so long for the Social Security Administration (SSA) to decide their claim. And their frustration isn't helped when attorneys or staff members don't return phone calls or emails promptly.
To limit your frustration, ask your legal representative what the general wait times are in your state. It's important that you have realistic expectations for how long the process takes, from start to finish.
However, disability lawyers and law firms are generally not able to shorten the time it takes for the SSA to process a claim or schedule a hearing (except for writing a dire need letter and in rare instances where a claimant's condition is a terminal illness ).
Therefore, the best option in many cases for a person unhappy with their current Organizational Payee Representative is to simply request that the Representative be changed from to an Organization with lower fees or a family or church member that will agree to apply as a representive. All of this can be handled through your local Social Security Administration Office without the aid of an attorney.
Other evidence that shows your ability to take care of yourself. Note: Be advised that if SSA believes your condition has improved to the point that you no longer need a payee, we may reevaluate your eligibility for benefits. However, in my experience if your Representative Payee is an approved organization then your chances to be become your own ...
When you're ready to sever the relationship with your old lawyer, send a certified or registered letter that clearly states you are terminating the relationship, and that the lawyer is to cease working on any pending matters.
If any fees were paid in advance and the work hasn't been done, ask for a refund of the fees. Also, ask for an itemized bill listing all pending fees and expenses. If yours is a contingency case, your new attorney will pay your old attorney from any money that you ultimately recover.
Will changing lawyers be detrimental to my case or legal issue? Changing a lawyer in the middle of an active litigation is like changing pilots in the middle of a flight. It will take time for the new attorney to get familiar with the file, particularly if the case is complex. In addition to potential delays, this process might also cost you money, since your new attorney will bill you for the time spent performing that review and getting up to speed. Also consider the immediate state of your case. Is there an upcoming appearance, hearing, or motion deadline? If so, your new attorney might not have time to adequately prepare.
This might be due to the lawyer being new to the practice, venturing outside his or her primary area of expertise , or just not being as sharp as you'd like.
Lawyers depend on their legal fees to earn a living, so most attorneys are motivated to do a good job and make their clients happy.
The attorney is unprofessional. For example, the attorney wastes time in meetings, does not appear to be prepared for court, seems very disorganized, or in the worst-case scenario, seems to be mishandling your funds or documents. The attorney does not communicate with you.
If you are a party to litigation, confirm that your new lawyer will notify the court as to your change in representation. When you meet with new lawyers, don’t bad-mouth your old one. Remember, the legal community can be small, and you may be speaking about someone’s close friend or former colleague.
You have 60 days to appeal a decision by contacting SSA. Please contact your local Social Security office or call us at 1-800-772-1213 for more information.
In most cases, someone who knows you asks us if he/she can be your payee. It may be a family member, a friend, a legal guardian or a lawyer. In some cases social service agencies, nursing homes or other organizations offer to serve as payees.
Before you hire an attorney, you’ll sign a contract that sets forth the lawyer’s fees. Most personal injury lawyers work on a contingency basis, which means they get paid a percentage of the damages you receive. However, they’re also going to charge you for additional expenses that come up while the case is in process.
For example, if your lawyer knows when your accident happened and when the statute of limitations runs out, yet still fails to file a claim in the allotted time period, you might no longer be able to file the claim or have legal recourse.
Reason #1: Your lawyer isn’t returning your calls. Lack of communication is a big problem for some law firm clients. Yes, legal practices are very busy. They have lots of clients — not just you. However, before a lawyer signs on to take your case, they need to know if the firm has the capacity to handle it. There’s no excuse for not returning phone ...
If you have a meeting with your lawyer, there’s a good chance you took time off from work, secured childcare, or had other obligations that you changed or gave up in order to be at the meeting. Your lawyer shouldn’t waste your time, be unprepared, or mishandle your funds or documents.
Your lawyer has a responsibility to act in an ethical manner. Beyond that responsibility, they’ve actually taken an oath to uphold certain ethics.
It’s possible that person doesn’t have a strong grasp of the particular area of law that’s relevant. The other thing that could happen is that as a case progresses, it could begin to involve areas of law outside your lawyer’s expertise.
Your lawyer likely knows the legal system in the community where you live, and they might have valid reasons why they think one approach is better than another, but ultimately it’s still up to you to make a decision — it’s your life, after all.
If any Social Security or Supplemental Security Income beneficiary believes they have been incorrectly assessed with an overpayment under this program, I encourage them to request an explanation or seek options to resolve the overpayment.”
Recently Carolyn W. Colvin, the acting commissioner of Social Security, released the following comment regarding recovery of debts owed to the Social Security Administration (SSA) that are 10 years old or older.
Option one is to appeal the overpayment. You can argue that overpayment never occurred by showing the SSA that they are miscalculating the overpayment. To do this, you need to show there was no change of income or that any money that did come in to the household is not income that can be counted by the SSA against your SSI or SSDI benefits.
If you are a Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipient, your SSI benefit amount is calculated on a monthly basis. Thus it is important to report any changes that occur in income or assets of the entire household on a monthly basis.
The SSA typically does a review of all cases to ensure that recipients are receiving the proper monthly benefits. However, like any business, there are times when the system becomes overwhelmed and falls behind on these reviews, and they do not catch the Social Security overpayment until several months, or even years in some cases, have passed. This results in the SSA overpaying you, and this means that you receive more in disability benefits than you are eligible. It does not matter if it is not your fault; they will hold you responsible to pay back the overpayment.
At the end of the day, being held responsible for a Social Security overpayment issue can be avoidable. Report any changes of income or work on a monthly basis to the SSA, keep any supporting documentation that can help support you did everything the SSA asked of you, and be diligent about staying on top of your finances.
If you are a Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) recipient, only your income counts.
Technically, it’s classified as mandatory spending, which means that it gets paid out automatically and doesn’t require an annual appropriation. If you qualify, you get Social Security. Period. It doesn’t matter where the funding comes from.
Social Security payments are mandatory regardless of how they’re funded. Congress does not approve a Social Security budget every year.
Bottom line: There are several upsides to funding Social Security through the general fund and literally no downsides. This is something that any progressive should support.
Back when Social Security was first started, FDR defended the payroll tax as “straight politics.” It was a way of tricking people into thinking that the money coming out of their paycheck was being “saved” in some way and then paid back to them when they retired. This has never been true, and FDR knew it, but it was a useful way of guaranteeing that Social Security couldn’t be touched in the future.
To request removal of a rep payee, a beneficiary should complete the appropriate SSA form, which will ask the beneficiary to explain why they can handle their own benefits. SSA must consider reviewing a beneficiary’s capability of managing funds whenever there is an allegation or indication that they are now capable of managing their SSA benefits. If SSA determines a full review is needed, SSA may interview the beneficiary, interview other knowledgeable people, and review documents to determine whether the beneficiary is capable of managing their own funds.
Generally, SSA will remove a rep payee and make direct payment to a beneficiary when the beneficiary demonstrates they are mentally and physically able to manage or direct the management of benefit payments.
A beneficiary should contact their local SSA office and explain the reasons for wanting to change a rep payee. A beneficiary can find their local SSA office on the SSA website. The SSA office should then make a determination and notify the beneficiary. If the beneficiary knows who they want to be their rep payee, the beneficiary should also ask that person to complete the appropriate SSA form.
If a beneficiary cannot manage or direct the management of their SSA benefits, SSA appoints a representative payee (rep payee) to receive and manage the SSA benefits. A rep payee can be a person or an organization. This publication is for adult beneficiaries and explains how a beneficiary can ask SSA to change or remove a rep payee ...
Anyone can report a rep payee’s misuse of funds by filing a report with the SSA Office of the Inspector General:
This publication is for adult beneficiaries and explains how a beneficiary can ask SSA to change or remove a rep payee and how a beneficiary can report a rep payee for misuse of funds.
If a beneficiary believes there is a rep payee who is a better fit for their circumstances, the beneficiary should contact the local SSA office regardless of whether the proposed rep payee meets the standards above or is lower on the preference list than the current rep payee is.