Disability Appeal Lawyers
Why Did You Get a Denied Disability Claim?
When you need to make a Social Security appeal, your denial letter is an important place to start because it could give clues about the reasons you were denied disability benefits.
- They could deny you for any of these reasons or more:
- They want to contact more of your doctors or other health care providers for information.
- They want more medical test results, doctors’ reports, or other medical evidence.
- They think the records in your file show that your medical conditions aren’t severe enough for you to need benefits.
- They think you could still do your job even with the health limitations you have.
- If you’re still working a little bit, they think you’re earning too much to be eligible for benefits, or that you could work more.
Often, though, disability denial letters are vague. It’s hard to interpret what they mean and what you can do to get Social Security to change its mind.
An experienced disability appeal attorney investigates deeper.
Because we’ve done this thousands of times, Barnes Disability can look at your disability application and supporting documents, identify likely reasons they denied you, and update your case to make it stronger when you appeal.
If you stick with your disability claim and file an appeal, you can get better odds of approval than when you first applied.
Talk to our Utah disability attorney team about your case. An initial conversation with us to see what’s going on is always free.
Steps to Social Security Appeals
Not only do you get another chance to win disability benefits after they reject your claim, you get several chances.
You can take your appeal through four levels:
- RECONSIDERATION. You can add information to your case and ask Social Security to give it another look. This is a step you need to take, but keep in mind that denials are still high in this first round of appeals. In Utah, at least 87% of people still are denied. Across the country in recent years, 98% of applicants receive denials after reconsideration. So, odds are you’ll move to the next step…
- DISABILITY HEARING. The most important step, and best chance to win benefits, may be testifying for a disability judge in a hearing. This is the stage when more people finally win disability benefits. Your disability lawyer guides you through it and speaks up for you there.
- APPEALS COUNCIL. If the judge turns you down, you can send your file to a group at Social Security called the Appeals Council and include legal documents arguing that the judge made a mistake. The council could send your case back to the judge with instructions for a do-over.
- FEDERAL COURT. Once you’ve exhausted all the steps to appealing your benefits denial within Social Security, you can go outside Social Security and ask a federal judge to order a re-do of its decision. Most cases don’t go this far, and many lawyers don’t, either, but Barnes Disability handles cases in federal court.
A study of Social Security Disability hearings by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that people who had representatives like lawyers with them were almost three times more likely to win approval of benefits.
And working with a lawyer improves your chances of winning disability benefits with little risk on your part—because no matter how much time or work your Social Security Disability appeal takes, you only pay an attorney fee after you win benefits.
Don’t let the denial letter make you give up. Let’s fight for the decent, stable life you deserve after you worked hard but health problems interfered.
Do You Want to Know More About Our Disability Lawyers in Utah?
Barnes Disability also helps with long-term disability claims when you have a private insurance policy to protect your finances if you lose the ability to work. Our disability attorneys have decades of experience and a mission to help everyday people find peace and dignity in difficult times.
