It’s important to have an attorney for your application and/or denial appeal
By: Darrell Castle
If you’re medically unable to work and are qualified for Social Security Disability, we’d love to help you. Give us a call at (901) 327-1212 to schedule a free consultation with one of our experienced SSDI attorneys.
Video Transcript
Hello this is Darrell Castle and I’m an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Tennessee and I’ve been doing a series of videos on Social Security Disability.
We’ve talked about the things that you need to have a present in order to be determined disabled under Social Security Administration rules. Okay, well let’s say you do those things, and then in your own mind, you are disabled. So, what is the application process like?
Well, you really have three choices for the application process. Choice number one is that you can go online, and that website is ssa.gov, and you can download all of the information you need from the Social Security Administration to make your application. That is, you can download the application, the questionnaire that they have, and it will give you a list of all the things that you need for a new application.
These are all fairly long and complicated forms.
Choice number two is that you could probably walk into a Social Security office somewhere and ask them to help you if you didn’t feel confident to do that. Maybe they would help you, but let me ask you this. If you were going to collect money from a person who owed you money, would you go to that person and ask them to help you collect it? That is the kind of thing you’re facing.
Option number three – you can go to an attorney and hire that attorney to represent you. He or she receives no money unless he or she wins, and only then is it a small percentage of your past-due benefits – not your on-going money.
Now, let’s say you do one of those three things and you get your application in and it is rejected, or denied. Once that happens, you have only 60 days from the day of the letter of denial to file your appeal. You’d be well-advised to get an attorney to do that. It’s very complicated, the forms are even thicker and the success rate without an attorney is even smaller.
Once again, that attorney costs you nothing unless he wins. Do you want to represent yourself in front of the administration law judge? Do you want to lose again? You need an attorney for that appeal and why not get one early on in the application process? It doesn’t cost you anymore folks. So, that is my advice to you, folks – don’t try the process without an attorney.