Lawyers and Social Security Disability Claims for Mental Conditions

Many claimants with mental disabilities do not have lawyers for their Social Security disability claim. In my opinion, if you are applying for SSDI or SSI benefits for a mental condition it is important to have a lawyer to help you with your claim. Whether you suffer from depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, anxiety, mental retardation, schizophrenia or any other of the many mental disabilities. You should know that Social Security disability claims are extremely complex and require not only that you know what you have to prove, but also have the ability to do what must be done to win. If you are claiming you are disabled primarily because of your mental condition then you are essentially saying your mental limitations are so severe that they prevent you from performing work. Handling your own SSD claim for a mental condition creates a Catch-22. If you are able to fill out all the paperwork, get the evidence that is needed, and argue a good case on your behalf, the Social Security decision-maker may make the assumption that if you can do all this why would you not be able to work. The second scenario, is if you are not able to fill out all the paperwork properly, get the evidence needed, and be able to explain why you are disabled under Social Security's rules then you will not only have a difficult time winning but could substantially slowdown your case. If you hire a lawyer to help you with your claim it eliminates both these potential problems. The lawyer will help you fill your paperwork, will get your evidence that is needed and will argue on your behalf as to why are you disabled from your mental condition. Many people feel they cannot afford an attorney. However, the Social Security disability lawyer only gets paid if he or she wins your claim. The amount of the fee is 25% of past due benefits or $6000 whichever is less. The idea that one cannot afford an attorney is really not true in almost all cases considering there is no money up front and the money will be taken by Social Security directly from your past due benefits. Because of the reasons I mentioned above, it is important to have a SSDI lawyer when you apply. The other advantage, besides giving yourself a better chance to win at application, is that if you win at this stage your fee will almost always be less than if you hire a lawyer later in the process and win your SSDI or SSI claim for your mental condition at a later stage. This is why it can sometimes be difficult to find a lawyer willing to take your case at application. There are plenty of attorneys that do, so if you are told to call back when you're denied simply call another lawyer. You may be wondering why you can't just have a friend or family member help you with the process instead of getting a lawyer. You could do this, and it would potentially eliminate the Catch-22 problem I mentioned earlier, but will a family member or friend have the knowledge and ability to navigate the Social Security disability process as well as an SSDI lawyer who is experienced in disability law would. If you are familiar with my writings on the Internet you know that I rarely say you need a lawyer, and most of my articles and web pages are about how to give yourself the best chance to win with or without a lawyer. However, I do feel that if you are trying to get Social Security disability benefits for a mental condition that a lawyer would be particularly beneficial in a claim of this sort. If you have any questions about getting SSDI or SSI benefits for mental conditions or need help with your claim call me at 1-877-527-5529.

How to Find a Good Social Security Disability Lawyer

This post on how to find yourself a good Social Security disability lawyer will talk mostly about searching on the Internet for an SSD or SSI lawyer. I am going to talk about how to determine if the person or company you are considering is a lawyer or non lawyer advocate. I will also discuss the right questions to ask, as well as some frequently asked questions that are not particularly helpful in picking a disability lawyer. I will also discuss how to determine if a particular website is a lawyer, a non-lawyer advocate, or a website that is going to sell your information to random attorneys or non attorney advocates. In this article, I am assuming that you are looking for lawyer and not a non lawyer representative. I think there are some good non-lawyer advocates out there but there are so many big non-attorney companies that are not bound by lawyer ethics rules so it makes it difficult to give advice on how to find a good non-lawyer representative. I also believe that most people would prefer to have a lawyer to represent them in their Social Security Disability case. But if you find a non-lawyer representative you like you can ask similar questions you would ask a lawyer.

So, how do you know if the company or person you think you want to represent you is a lawyer or a non lawyer representatives? If you call the company you are thinking of using asked them if they are a law firm. If they tell you they have lawyers in their company, but avoid the question then you know they are not a law firm and a non-lawyer representative may show up at your hearing. Every big company has lawyers, but if you want make sure a lawyer is going to represent you in court then you will want a law firm. If it is not a big company, but rather a single representative you can simply ask them if they are a lawyer. Many of the larger companies will use many tricks to infer that they are a law firm. So even if you have questioned them thoroughly on the phone you will want to make sure you read the paperwork they send to you and read all the fine print. If you have reason to suspect that they are not a law firm then visit their website and if it does not say specifically that they are lawyer, attorney or law firm but instead use the term advocate or representative then chances are they are not a law firm or lawyer.

Now that you have separated the lawyers from non-lawyer representatives the best you can, you will now want to ask the right questions to determine what attorney is right for you. One question that is frequently asked which I believe is the wrong question to ask of a lawyer is what their winning percentage is. This is a question that many nonlawyer companies tell you to ask on their websites. One thing they don't tell you is that lawyers and law firms have to follow the ethics rules on advertising for attorneys. A lawyer or law firm may be violating the ethics rules if they disclose winning percentages to potential clients. These ethics rules do not apply to non-attorneys. When you see a website that boasts about their winning percentage chances are they are not a law firm and you must always read the fine print. Many non-attorney companies will claim to win 90 to 95% of their cases. Let me point out a few things about claims such as these. If you read the fine print on some of these sites it will say in cases that we represent the client through the entire administrative process. What they don't tell you is that they frequently drop cases that they don't feel they can win (unfortunately many lawyers do this as well). I have received many e-mails from people who have been dropped weeks and sometimes days before their hearing. Another thing to consider is that many non-attorneys or non lawyer companies are not willing and possibly not able to take on the more difficult cases. Also, most lawyers are required to do a certain amount of pro bono cases, which many times are not great cases, because they are the cases where the claimant has not been able to find someone to represent them, or they were cases referred to them through legal aid to help with their case load. So, what questions should you ask of a SSDI or SSI lawyer. You can ask them what percentage of their cases are disability cases. You can also ask them how long have they been handling Social Security Disability claims. You can also ask them if they are in NOSSCR. This is The National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives. This organization is for lawyers and non-lawyers and they have two conferences a year and send a newsletter every month to their members to keep them up-to-date on the latest Social Security disability news and cases. Not all Social Security disability lawyers are in this organization and should not be the deciding factor in whether you hire a particular lawyer but if they are a member it shows a certain commitment to this area of law. You can also ask the lawyer if he or she has been certified as a Social Security Disability Specialists by any organization or by their State Bar. One thing I should note here, is that some states do not recognize specialization by lawyers, so again this should not be the deciding factor but rather another thing to consider. If it is a large or medium sized law firm you may want to ask the experience of the other Social Security disability lawyers in the firm since you will probably not know which particular lawyer will be representing you if you have a hearing. If you want a lawyer from the start you will also want to ask if they take cases at application. Probably the most important thing when choosing a lawyer is not so much how they answer all your questions, but how did you feel after talking to the attorney. In other words, did you feel rushed, did the lawyer seem interested, did the attorney ask you questions about your claim, did he or she appear honest, was the attorney willing to answer questions about Social Security disability in general and most importantly where you comfortable speaking to the lawyer. To find a good and experienced Social Security Disability lawyer it should not take you having to call more than a few lawyers to decide. If the lawyer has been handling Social Security disability claims for a long time and you are comfortable speaking with that lawyer then you have probably found the good fit for you. Most experienced SSDI and SSI lawyers will handle your claim in a similar way as other experienced disability lawyers so if you find one you are comfortable with it should be easy to make a choice.

In the last part of this article I want you to be aware that you should not fill out every form you come across on every disability website. There is a very big business of website companies that make very nice and high ranking websites and the goal of these websites is to get you to fill out a form so they can sell your information to lawyer and non lawyer representatives. I personally answer all my e-mails and do not sell any of my e-mails I receive. However, there are many websites that do. It can sometimes be difficult to tell whether the website you are reading, and that you want to send information about your case to, is a lead generating website to sell your information, or a website that is willing to answer your questions and keep your information confidential. If you are filling out the form on a law firm website then it is fairly safe to assume the law firm would have an interest in answering your questions or representing you. If the website does not disclose what firm or company is running that website then it may be a lead generating website. If the company that owns the firm sounds more like an Internet company than a disability firm then this could be a red flag as well. Most websites that offer to answer questions or give free evaluations that only intend to answer your question or evaluation and not sell your information will have the name of the law firm or disability company somewhere on the site. It is also a good sign if the author of the website clearly states who he or she is and what his or her disability lawyer credentials are to answer your questions. You should also always read the footnotes at the bottom of the website which will some times tell you that your information is sent to third parties. The good thing is that even if you do send your information to a lead selling company chances are the third party will be an attorney or non-attorney representative who most likely only want to represent you and have no interest in passing your information beyond themselves. The one thing you should never do is send your SS number to anyone on the web. I hope you found my article to be helpful but sometimes the best way to find your SSDI or SSI lawyer is to use a disability lawyer a friend or family member used and liked. Good luck.

What you should know about SSD even if you have a lawyer

Many of you have lawyers for your Social Security disability or SSI claim or you may be considering getting an attorney to help you. However, this does not mean you should simply sign the paperwork and wait to see what happens. Even if you have a lawyer you should have an understanding of how Social Security will determine if you are disabled. You should know the five step process Social Security uses to determine disability. Another thing you should consider is that even if you gave your doctors names and addresses to your lawyer and/or Social Security this does not guarantee they will be able to get all of your medical records and opinion evidence needed to win your case without your help. Many times, doctors are much more willing to give their records, and an opinion on disability to their patients directly, rather than answering a request for this from your lawyer or Social Security. However, keep in mind when you have a lawyer representing you it is important that you not be too involved in the case as to interfere with your attorney's representation of you. What can sometimes be worse though, is when you do not stay involved in your case at all. So it is important to balance your involvement in your case. The best way to do this is to ask your lawyer what you can do to help win your case. Your lawyer may send you to your doctors with paperwork or ask you to send them certain information. In the course of the social security disability claim many claimants may start to ask why do I have a lawyer if I am doing all this work. However, it is my experience in handling SSD and SSI claims for many years that those who are willing to help with their claims can substantially increase their chances of winning. I should also note, that clients who write constant letters and make constant phone calls to their lawyers and Social Security can actually hurt their claim. So how do you know if you are involved enough, but not too involved in your claim. For one, you should never call or write to Social Security without speaking to your lawyer first. You have a right to and should call your lawyer every two or three months to check in on your case and see if there is anything you can do to help. Many times speaking to your lawyer's staff should be enough to give you an update on your case and be able to tell you of any records or opinions they are having difficulty getting. However, there will also be times where you feel it is important that you speak your lawyer directly. Make sure to keep in mind that lawyers who handle Social Security disability lawyers have many clients, so it is important that when you request to speak your lawyer about your case that you do so for issues that are very important to your case or for some other reason you only want to speak your lawyer about it. Every client has a right to speak to their lawyer about their case, but just always keep in mind that if you call to frequently it can be very disruptive in the amount of time a lawyer has to work on your case and other cases. So to sum this up, if your lawyer asked for your help or asks for some information from you remember it is with the goal of winning your case, so attempt to get them the information they are looking for as soon as possible. If you have a question you should first ask that question of the staff (unless it is personal) and if your question is not answered to your satisfaction you should then ask to speak to the lawyer personally. For example, if you are simply checking on the status of your claim the lawyer's staff should be able to answer this question for you. Another example would be if you are checking to see if your lawyer received certain information you sent to the lawyer again the staff should be able to tell you. If your question is legal in nature or pertains to sensitive medical condition then in this situation you'll probably want to request you speak to the lawyer handling your case. Every law office handles cases differently and in some cases lawyers do not even have employees. So know your lawyer and use your best judgment as to when you need to call and what you can do to help your claim without getting so involved as to hurt your claim.

Lawyers and Social Security Disability

Whether to get a lawyer for your Social Security Disability or SSI claim is a matter of personal choice. I will tell my opinion from my experience in handling these cases how an attorney can help. I believe the most important function of a lawyer in SSDI cases is to fully develop the record. This means making sure all relevant medical records are in the file. A lawyer can look at a file and see what is needed to win a particular case. It is not enough in most cases to just have all the medical records from the treating doctors. You have to know what you have to show to prove disability for every individual case. This includes getting the appropriate RFC forms from the right treating doctors. The RFC forms are just another tool the lawyer uses to make a case. The limitations from these RFC that are supported by the medical records and statements from your doctors have to be tied into the "theory" of the case. A good lawyer will craft his theory of why the claimant can not work by integrating all the elements of the claim. Many things come into play including age, education, prior work, limitations, objective evidence, subjective evidence, testimony, possibly medical and vocational experts, the listings and many other factors. If you decide you don't need a lawyer it would be a good idea to learn as much as you can about Social Security Disability.