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The best time to retain a disability lawyer is immediately upon filing a request for a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ), if not sooner. Why? Because if you go to your disability hearing alone, and a judge decides against your claim, there’s not much you or any attorney can do to help your case. In fact, most disability attorneys are reluctant (some actually refuse) to get involved in disability cases if the claimant has already appeared before a judge. The legal argument has already been made and rejected by a judge (and who knows how the claimant may have unknowingly hurt his case with thoughtless words or just plain ignorance of disability law.) Now the attorney will have to work twice as hard to prove to the appeals council that A) his client is disabled, and B) a federal judge erred in his or her decision. On the other hand, claimants who appear at their hearing with legal representation stand a good chance of success—60% of all disability denials are overturned by ALJs when the claimant is represented by a disability lawyer. Disability attorneys do not like to get involved in lost causes, but some will take on a case after a judge has already denied the claim if the case is solid and there is some basis for appeal. However, even these attorneys will probably ask to see your file and the notice of decision from your hearing before agreeing to request a review of the judge’s decision. Actually, claimants who file an application for social security disability (SSD) or supplemental security income (SSI) and are turned down should start looking into some sort of legal representation, even before the hearing level of appeal. This is because the first appeal, called a request for reconsideration, is also likely to be turned down (DDS denies about 80% of all reconsideration appeals). And, if your first appeal fails you will have to file a second disability appeal (the disability hearing at which legal representation is critical). So, if your initial application is turned down, it is safe to assume you will at some point in the near future have to appear before a judge, and you don’t want to do this on your own. Of course, everybody makes mistakes, and if your disability hearing wasn’t successful and you can’t find an attorney to file with the disability appeals council on your behalf, you do have one last option: start over with a new claim, and this time be sure to retain a lawyer before your disability hearing. 
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