What Happens If You Get Denied by the Appeals Council?

If your social security disability or ssi disability claim is denied by the appeals council, you have the following three options:

1. Give up on your claim (not a good idea)
2. File a new claim (depending on the advice of your representative, this may or may not be a good idea)
3. File a civil action in U.S. federal district court

How long does an appeal to federal district court take? As with every step in the disability apeal process, there is simply no way to know since deadlines do not exist. However, in every case, the time required will be a number of months.

Claimants who are considering exercising the option of a civil action appeal should know, however, that this is the one step in the social security disability process in which a non attorney cannot participate. Only attorney representatives can file this type of appeal.

However, only a small percentage of disability cases ever proceed this far and non attorney representatives who have clients wishing to pursue such appeals can often refer a claimant to an appropriate attorney representative.