An Attorney who handles your Social Security Disability case will take the following steps:
- Obtain copy of an SSD or SSI claimant's social security file.
- Get updated medical records from a client's doctors, clinics, and hospitals.
- Ask for supportive statements from a claimant's treating physician or therapist.
Most people who represent themselves aren't aware that this needs to be part of the preparation. Otherwise, when the disabled petitioner arrives to represent himself he is given his medical records for a short-time to review and present his case for disability. The disabled petitioner tries to read through medical records on his own without the benefit of knowing which information is most critical to the case. Even if he can find it while looking through his 3 inch file of medical records, how does he present it? An attorney knows the routine and how to promote his client for obtaining disability. At this point the disabled person who is thinking of representing himself should ask this question; would there be a better likely hood of winning benefits with legal representation?
The Attorney may not be able to ascertain if he can win or lose but he only gets paid a fee when the benefits are won for the client. The fee is somewhere around 25% of the past due disability awarded. Is that worth it to let him get a percentage of the win? Consider the alternative for the client. Chances are better with a Social Security Disability Attorney.
When choosing a Social Security Disability Attorney one considers the experience. Is the attorney a Board Certified Specialist in Social Security Disability Law? This will indicate he understands the critical details in a particular case. And remember, the attorney will not take the case if he doesn't think there is a good chance to win because that is how the legal representative is paid.
These are the options the disabled have to work in their favor. The choice to hire a Social Security Disability Attorney is very popular in part because the disabled person has a lot of stress in the first place, dealing with the inability to work and most likely, bills keep piling up. With a chronic illness or disability how energetic can one be to gather all the information necessary to prepare? Beware also, because some doctors do not release medical files to patients so clients might run into some problems obtaining the information. Perhaps these things are encouragement to have a Social Security Disability Attorney at the client's side for as long as we have Social Security Disability.
