If you do not have a Social Security disability lawyer representing you at your hearing, you will be relying on the Social Security Administration (SSA) to request and submit all pertinent medical records to your file.
Full Answer
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.
Yes, and in fact statistics on disability hearing decisions in recent years have indicated that approximately forty percent of those claimants who go to their social security hearings by themselves will be approved for disability benefits.
When you first get in touch with a disability lawyer, they will conduct an initial review of your case. If you’ve never applied for disability benefits, they will assess your eligibility for disability. But if you’ve already been denied, they will look at what went wrong with your application.
After you attend a disability appeal hearing and the administrative law judge (ALJ) has heard your case, the judge will send a written opinion (decision) to you. The decision will state whether you were approved or denied, and explains the basis for the judge's decision. Types of ALJ Decisions A disability approval can be either full or partial.
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.
Here are some more ways to speed up your disability application.Requesting an OTR Decision. ... Requesting an Attorney Advisor Decision. ... Compassionate Allowances List. ... Terminal Illnesses. ... Presumptive Disability. ... Dire Need. ... Military Service Members. ... Contacting a Member of Congress.
Even if your lawyer is working on another case, they should still get back to you within a day or two at the most. Your lawyer owes you responsive communication, even if you're not their only client. There's no excuse for an attorney who takes weeks to return calls or emails.
What does Notice of Decision - Unfavorable mean? This decision finds that you are not disabled and never were disabled according to Social Security laws, regulations, and rules.
1. Arthritis. Arthritis and other musculoskeletal disabilities are the most commonly approved conditions for disability benefits. If you are unable to walk due to arthritis, or unable to perform dexterous movements like typing or writing, you will qualify.
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.
If your lawyer does not return your call, send them a letter and keep a copy. In the letter, describe what is bothering you and what you need. Suggest meeting with the lawyer face-to-face.
There is no set formula for how often you will hear from your attorney. However, the key to a successful attorney client relationship is communication. Whenever there is an important occurrence in your case you will be contacted or notified.
Five things not to say to a lawyer (if you want them to take you..."The Judge is biased against me" Is it possible that the Judge is "biased" against you? ... "Everyone is out to get me" ... "It's the principle that counts" ... "I don't have the money to pay you" ... Waiting until after the fact.
The only way to overturn a decision made by an ALJ is to file an appeal with the Appeals Council. You can file an appeal to the Appeals Council by sending the SSA a letter or submitting Form HA-520.
If you receive an "unfavorable" decision (a denial) or a "partially favorable" decision from the ALJ, you have 60 days from the date of the denial notice to request an appeal from the Appeals Council.
Some American workers do not qualify for Social Security retirement benefits. Workers who have not accrued the requisite 40 credits (roughly 10 years of employment) are not eligible for Social Security. Some government and railroad employees are not eligible for Social Security.
There are legitimate reason they may not be able to argue your case: you have started working too much and they know you will be denied, you have not been responsive to their request for information or they have lost contact with you. Your lawyer may also have determined they have taken on too many cases and they do not believe they can effectively work your case.
The good news if you are waiting for a hearing it can take up to 12 months to get on the hearing schedule. This should be more than enough time to start interviewing disability lawyers and find the perfect lawyer to argue your case before the administrative law judge.
If the Social Security representative at the district office doesn't find anything wrong with your eligibility, you will be sent a Notice of Award letter telling you whether the judge gave you a fully favorable or partially favorable decision.
The Notice of Award letter gives you the deadline for appealing an ALJ decision: 60 days after you receive the hearing notice.
After you've attended your disability hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ), your disability file will remain at the hearings office (the Office of Hearings Operations, or OHO) until the ALJ makes his or her decision. Once the administrative law judge has made his or her decision, the decision is actually written by staff decision ...
If you were approved only for SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance), your file will then be sent to a payment processing center and you should start to receive payments within a month (assuming the judge agreed your onset date is more than five months before the approval date).
The first alternative to not attending a disability hearing is to attend a video conference at a specified location while the administrative law judge appears remotely by video. This may be a good option if you live too far ...
Claimants denied for Social Security Disability Insurance can generally request an appeal of the denial decision within 60 days of receiving their denial letter. If its the first denial claimants generally request a reconsideration (although some states have eliminated this level of appeal).
The good news, however, is that the administrative hearing will give you the best possible chance of getting approved for benefits. In fact, it will be the first chance you have had to plead your case directly to a person with the authority to make a disability decision.
As defined by ethical rules, a lawyer's duty to keep clients informed has two primary components: to advise the defendant of case developments (such as a prosecutor's offered plea bargain or locating an important defense witness), and. to respond reasonably promptly to a defendant's request for information.
A defendant who phones his or her attorney with a request for information can indicate a willingness to speak with the lawyer's associate, secretary, or paralegal. The lawyer may be too tied up on other cases to return the call personally, but may have time to pass along information through an assistant.
Defendants should insist that their lawyers adhere to their ethical obligation to inform them about the progress of their cases. As defined by ethical rules, a lawyer's duty to keep clients informed has two primary components: 1 to advise the defendant of case developments (such as a prosecutor's offered plea bargain or locating an important defense witness), and 2 to respond reasonably promptly to a defendant's request for information.
If you hire a disability lawyer, the burden of compiling the necessary evidence to support your claim will fall largely on them. You won’t have to stress yourself talking to your doctors or thinking about what type of medical evidence you need to get.
If your claim gets denied at the initial application stage, you have the right to appeal the SSA’s decision. This is where an experienced disability lawyer can help you too. They can help you navigate the appeals process and file a request for reconsideration.
The SSA’s disability determinations process uses an evidence-based approach in granting disability benefits. They will want you to prove that your disability really prevents you from going back to work or doing any type of income-generating activity.
1. Conduct an Initial Review of Your Case. When you first get in touch with a disability lawyer, they will conduct an initial review of your case. If you’ve never applied for disability benefits, they will assess your eligibility for disability. But if you’ve already been denied, they will look at what went wrong with your application.
7. Doesn’t Get Paid Unless You Win. If you’ve been on the fence about hiring a disability lawyer because of monetary concerns, worry not. In most states, an attorney or advocate cannot collect fees unless you win the case. The attorney’s fee will be deducted from your total benefits once it’s released.
June 17, 2021. When you’re applying for social security disability benefits, hiring a disability lawyer is not required by law. But doing so can be very beneficial for your case. According to the SSA, denied social security disability claims average at 53%. Most of them got denied during the initial application stage.
After you attend a disability appeal hearing and the administrative law judge (ALJ) has heard your case, the judge will send a written opinion (decision) to you. The decision will state whether you were approved or denied, ...
If the ALJ denies your claim, you have 60 days to ask the Appeals Council (AC) to review your case. Your appeal must be in writing and, in order to be successful, must demonstrate that the ALJ's decision was not based on substantial evidence.
If the judge finds you are not performing SGA, the opinion will proceed to discussion of step two.
The judge's written opinion (explanation) of the decision will outline each step of the judge's five-step evaluation process and apply the facts of your case at each step.
When you applied for disability, you provided the SSA with an alleged onset date. This is the date you felt you became disabled due to your condition. But the judge doesn't need to agree with this onset date when awarding you benefits.
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, ...
Your attorney will ask your doctors for supportive statements, submit only the relevant medical records to the judge, and know how to handle bad evidence. In preparing to represent you in a disability appeal hearing, your attorney will want you to answer some detailed questions about your symptoms and limitations.
If your attorney attempts to cover-up the evidence or mislead the ALJ about its importance, both you and your attorney's credibility will be damaged.
Your attorney will review the medical records to see what is relevant to your case and submit only that information to Social Security. Because of their heavy caseloads, administrative law judges (ALJ) do not have the time to sift through hundreds of pages of documents to determine what is relevant and what isn't.
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 .
It is not uncommon for medical records to contain information that is not only unhelpful but may be harmful to a disability applicant's case. Social Security regulations and ethics rules require a disability attorney to submit all relevant evidence to Social Security.
Your lawyer can request that a medical expert be at your hearing (by phone). 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.