Social Security Disability Help: Lawyers and Advocates

You are allowed to get help when filing your Social Security disability claim and for appeals if they become necessary. Social Security disability advocates, lawyers and laypeople such as a friend or family member can help you.

Social Security Disability Advocates

If you have decided that you want the help of a professional to file your initial application for disability benefits with Social Security, you will quickly realize that there are different kinds of help from which to choose. One choice that you have is to hire a Disability Advocate. Typically a Disability Advocate refers to an individual that is not an attorney but who does have specialized training or knowledge about the Social Security disability process. Larger disability advocacy firms may also have an attorney or more than one attorney on staff.

Services offered will vary, so it is important that you do your research and ask lots of questions before you select someone to help you. Some questions that you may want to ask a disability advocate include:

• How much experience do you have with Social Security disability cases?
• How much of your practice is devoted exclusively to Social Security disability?
• What percent of your clients are successful in winning benefits?
• Do you have an attorney on staff?
• Will I be assigned one person who will work with me?
• Will you represent me at a Social Security hearing?
• How are you paid?

Be aware that if you select an advocate who is not a licensed attorney, your advocate will not be able to represent you any further in the process than an appeal hearing before an Administrative Law Judge, should that be necessary.

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions, but you have to decide what is important to you. If you use the same list of questions for all advocates that you interview, you can more easily compare their services to select the right person. If you choose an advocate to represent you, you have to tell Social Security in writing by filing Form SSA-1696. When you complete this form you will be appointing a person (or more than one person) to act as your representative, but you cannot actually appoint the advocate firm itself as your representative.

Social Security Disability Help

The person you choose to help you could possibly be a friend or a member of your family. Although you no doubt trust your family member or friend, it is almost impossible for them to provide assistance that is of the same caliber as an advocate or attorney. Perhaps you are choosing a family member or friend who is on Social Security disability or someone who helped another relative with their benefits application.

How Social Security Disability Advocates and Lawyers Are Paid

Most advocates and attorneys will help you on a contingency basis, meaning they are only paid when successful in helping you win disability benefits.

• Social Security limits the payment to 25 percent of any back benefits you may be awarded, with a cap of $6,000.
• You cannot be charged for services without prior approval by Social Security.
• The 25 percent is not taken out of your ongoing monthly benefit.

25 percent may sound like a high percentage, but most good advocates and attorneys have success ratios much higher than those experienced by people who go it alone. Talk to a Social Security attorney today to find out if he or she thinks you have a good chance of receiving benefits, because they are too important to risk losing.

Learn More

1. Introduction to Social Security Disability
2. Applying for Disability Benefits
3. Filing the Paperwork

Trying to Get Disability Benefits?