This information may help claimants with representation, as well as claimants who are not represented by an attorney or non attorney representative. Understanding how the Social Security Disability system works can make the difference between winning or not winning the continuing disability benefits and backpay to which a person is entitled. To win a claim for ongoing and past due benefits, claimants should learn about the disability process to improve their chances of winning. |
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I am at the ALJ stage. A lawyer won't represent me. I have to go in by myself. How do I prepare to go in by myself? If you can't find an attorney to represent you, that's probably not a good sign. For one thing, you can usually find a fair number of disability attorneys (and non attorney representatives) in the yellow pages and online. Also, a sizeable percentage of attorneys and representatives will take a disability claim even if the chances of winning are only marginal. You may want to look a bit more. I suspect you'll be able to find representation by looking a bit more. To answer your question, which is basically, How do I represent myself at a disability hearing?, you need to do the following: get a copy of your social security file and review it. This will let you know what the disability examiners at the initial and reconsideration levels looked at when they denied you at those levels. This will also allow you, potentially, to get an idea of how strongly your own treating doctors support your case, or not. Additionally, you should be able to see, from a review of your case file, whether or not certain evidence from some of your medical sources was simply not gathered. Lastly, getting the file will allow you to determine what additional medical records, or updates, you should gather on your own. This, of course, brings us to step 2: you need to get your recent medical records from your doctors, hospitals, and clinics and submit them to the hearing office so the ALJ may review them. If you don't do this, it's not likely you will have recent supporting evidence at your hearing. On occasion, the hearing office may do independent development on your case, but this probably doesn't happen very often. And very important: remember to keep a copy of the records you gather for yourself. Because if your are going to represent yourself, you need to be familiar with what is in your records so you can present your case and respond to the ALJ's questioning. However, honestly, your best option is to find representation. Attorneys and non-attorney representatives are not doctors, but most have a certain level of expertise when it comes to evaluating medical records in the context of disability determinations. Good luck on the case. Disability Advocates Help with Claims Free Case Evaluation |
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SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY ATTORNEY, REPRESENTATIVE LAWYER LIST ANSWERS TO YOUR SSD & SSI QUESTIONS PAGE 3 ANSWERS TO YOUR SSD & SSI QUESTIONS PAGE 4 |
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If you suffer from a medical disability such as hip, neck, shoulder, ankle, wrist, back, or other joint problems, disc herniation, degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis, carpal tunnel syndrome, rsi or repetetive stress injury, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis, dysthymia, depression or other mood disorders, congestive or chronic heart failure, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, diabetic neuropathy, high blood pressure (hypertension), seizure disorder, stroke, copd, emphysema, hearing loss or poor hearing, statutory blindness, peripheral field problems or other vision loss, clinical obesity, attention deficit hyperactivity or, simply, adhd, bipolar disorder or manic depression, panic disorder, schizophrenia, autism, head trauma, memory loss, low iq, mental retardation, learning disability, epilepsy, cancer, chronic fatigue, multiple sclerosis, lupus, anxiety, inner ear problems, meniere's, vertigo or dizziness, kidney failure requiring dialysis or other renal problems, cirrhosis, hepatitis, or other liver disease, pancreatitis, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, asthma, bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, rsd or reflex sympathetic dystrophy, crohn's disease, sarcoidosis, peripheral vascular disease, lyme disease, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, hiv, aids, anemia, sickle cell, thyroid problems including hypothyroidism, esrd or end stage renal disease, reflux, gerd (gastroesophageal reflux disease), cfids, muscular dystrophy, coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, or tachycardia, bradycardia or other arrhythmia and have initiated or been denied on a social security disability, or ssi, claim for benefits, this site may assist you with your case. Social Security Disability benefits are often difficult to win; however many claims for social security disability are lost simply because a claimant did not know enough about the disability process to their social security or ssi claim. For information re: representation on a social security disability or ssi claim (attorney or non attorney representative), see the "questions" & "how" pages. |
| Social Security Disability The chances of winning on a social security disability claim |