What Does a Disability Lawyer Do for My Claim? (And What Can’t They Do?)
It is possible to apply for Social Security Disability on your own. Many people do. So why should you get a disability attorney?
Having an attorney and their support team on your disability claim can be a great help at every step of the process—relieving the burden on you and getting you closer to crucial financial relief.
But what does a disability lawyer do for your claim? What is their job? And what are the limits on what your disability lawyer can do?
In this blog post, the Utah disability lawyers at Barnes Disability Advocates break it down step by step:
- Helping with your application
- Building a plan for your case
- Helping deal with Social Security along the way
- Helping you appeal a denial
- Representing you in your disability hearing
- Helping even after you’re approved
- Being there to answer your questions
- What lawyers can’t control
It’s important to know this: When you have a lawyer for your disability claim, you only pay a legal fee out of your back benefits when you win your case, no fee if you don’t win.
How a Disability Attorney Helps with Your Initial Application for Benefits
At Barnes Disability Advocates, our Utah disability lawyers help people through the application process from the very beginning.
We work directly with clients to make sure they have the most complete information. This includes asking about medical providers you’ve seen who you may have forgotten about or didn’t think you needed to list.
One of the big things a disability attorney does is help determine the “Alleged Onset Date (AOD)” of your disability.
While some people can pinpoint when they believe their disability started, others may struggle. Their medical condition may have developed gradually.
Because Social Security defines disability based on the inability to work, the date you believe to be the start of your disability and what Social Security considers the official beginning of your disability may be completely different.
Our Social Security Disability lawyers understand these rules. They can help you come up with an AOD that Social Security will respect. This can sometimes save you from the extra paperwork of trying to convince Social Security of the onset date you had in mind when it doesn’t work according to their rules.
Do you need a lawyer to apply for Social Security Disability? No, but you probably want one.
Some law firms will tell you to apply on your own and call them once you’re denied. Barnes Disability attorneys help from the first step.
How Your Social Security Disability Lawyer Builds a Plan for Your Case
In a system that denies most people and makes them appeal and add to their cases, don’t go in without a plan.
At Barnes Disability, our Utah disability attorneys review your medical providers and records, looking for evidence missing from your claim and ways to improve your chances of winning.
With our experience helping thousands of people, we can anticipate what you’ll need later in the process and make sure you get it in your file with Social Security.
Your disability lawyer creates a case plan spelling out the evidence that you will need.
Case plans often focus on how to properly document your disabilities. See more in our blog post “Use This 3-Step Process to Get Social Security Disability Benefits.”
Your plan requires your participation. You will need, for example, to discuss with your doctors what medical tests and treatments you should undertake.
Your disability lawyer can advise you what kinds of medical records make a strong case for Social Security, and then you can talk about it with your doctors. We can’t direct your doctors to do anything, but we can provide you with the knowledge you need to help them support your claim.
Should you get a lawyer for your disability claim? We think it’s better if you do partly because you can’t be expected to be an expert on this system and know what medical evidence you need.
We know that as a disability law firm, we might seem biased on whether you need a lawyer. But honestly, even if you don’t choose us, we think you should find some experienced lawyer to help you.
Your Disability Lawyer Helps You Deal with Social Security Claims Examiners
What else does your lawyer do for your disability claim? A major part of our service is keeping your case on track with all the small steps throughout the long process.
Your claim will be assigned to an examiner who requests medical records from your providers, reviews them, and asks you to fill out additional paperwork.
The Barnes Disability team makes sure Social Security files its record requests with the right medical providers.
You list your providers on your application, but sometimes they request records from the wrong places.
Along the way, when you see new doctors, therapists and other health care providers, you may also get new medical records to submit. Your disability lawyer tells your Social Security Disability claims examiner to get those records, too.
As for the paperwork the examiner sends you to fill out, it can be overwhelming. They might send multiple forms at once.
We can talk you through what the questions mean and what you should include in your answers. With a lawyer guiding you, you can avoid leaving things out or making mistakes.
We can’t do the paperwork for you. The forms ask a lot of questions only you know the answers to. You have the best information on what daily activities you can and cannot do with your health limitations.
But with Barnes Disability supporting you, you don’t have to stare at blank forms wondering what to say. You have someone you can talk to about it.
Your Disability Lawyer Helps You Appeal a Denial
It’s extremely common for people to get denied during the Social Security Disability application process.
Our office can help you read your denial letter and understand why Social Security Disability made the decisions that they did.
And we help you appeal your denial. Our team knows which appeals to use in response to different types of denials.
We know what information you need for your appeal—and what information may be unnecessary. This is important because it can help make the appeal process faster.
Appealing is not like applying for disability benefits in the first place. It’s much more like a legal case with more evidence, arguments, filings—and even a hearing with a disability judge.
Talk to a disability lawyer quickly because when you’re denied, you generally have 60 days to file your appeal.
Your Disability Lawyer Represents You in Your Social Security Disability Hearing
When they think about disability attorneys, most people think about the hearing part of the process.
It’s not a trial, but your hearing with a disability judge is much more like a legal proceeding than anything you’ve encountered before in your claim.
Having an attorney can make this part so much better. Your hearing is a major reason you should get a disability lawyer.
Before your hearing even happens, we make a point of giving you a chance to speak with your hearing attorney at Barnes Disability, so they can prepare you for the format of the hearing and what sorts of questions the judge will ask you.
Not all disability attorneys prepare their clients ahead of time like that. Some will meet you on the day of the hearing and hope you can mostly wing it.
Our attorneys also write up briefs ahead of time that help point out to the administrative law judge what medical evidence in your file would support a finding of disability.
This is a very important part of the process. Many people have hundreds, if not thousands of pages of medical records to review. You want a representative who can make sure the judge sees the most crucial details.
Then, when it’s time for your hearing, our hearing attorneys are right there with you, to ask you questions that emphasize for the judge why you truly need disability benefits.
One government study found that people with representatives like lawyers in their disability hearings were almost three times more likely to be approved for benefits than those who went alone.
How Your Disability Attorney Helps Even After You’re Approved
After your claim is approved comes the part everyone looks forward to—getting paid.
You want to get paid; we want you to get paid; and we want to get paid for successfully winning benefits.
At Barnes Disability, we don’t drop your claim once we receive our attorney fee through Social Security, even though Social Security’s policies say we should.
We make sure that you get the proper back benefits that you deserve and that your monthly payments moving forward are correct.
It’s important to us that you receive the benefits we both worked so hard to secure.
We have a payment specialist in our office who knows the timelines and how payments for different claims work.
They communicate with Social Security about any delays or issues that arise. They know who to speak with and how often to speak with them, which can dramatically change how quickly you receive your benefits.
We’re always willing to talk with you about your Notice of Award and answer questions about how Social Security determined your back pay and monthly payments.
Your Disability Attorney Is Someone Who Can Answer Your Questions
One of the biggest things our disability law firm does is answer questions at every step of the process.
It can be hard to understand all the different parts of Social Security and what exactly is going on with your claim.
Our staff members are continuously trained on how to answer these questions. And if they don’t have an answer, they’re ready and willing to find one and get back to you.
We have offices in two locations in Utah so you can just walk in and ask your questions if you would like. We’re available when you need us.
The Social Security system itself is huge, complicated, and difficult to deal with and get answers from. Having a disability lawyer means you have real, caring humans you can call any time that you have questions.
What a Social Security Disability Lawyer Can’t Do
It’s important for you to know that your disability attorney doesn’t control the benefit claims process, and there are certain things they can’t help you with.
For starters, we can’t actually make Social Security work on your claim any faster.
They are working on thousands of claims at a time, and that makes things slow. Because of this, there are parts of the process where we are waiting for months for the next stage.
While we’re waiting, you can still reach out to us and ask questions and work on your case plan. This is a good time to double-check that your claim has all the evidence it needs.
Another thing we can’t do is make Social Security’s decisions for them.
We can make sure that your claim file is as complete as possible based on the information that you give us, but we can’t tell them to approve you. The decision is entirely up to them.
We also don’t know who your medical providers are until you tell us. Any time you see a new medical office, let us know. The information contained in their records could be crucial to your claim.
As Social Security Disability attorneys, we are limited to Social Security Disability claims.
We can’t help you apply for retirement benefits or Medicaid. We may be able to direct you on whom to call, but we can’t do any of that for you.
But the list of reasons you should get a Social Security Disability attorney is long and strong.
Having an attorney makes the process easier for you. Your attorney gives you personal attention when you need it most. You could have better chances of winning if you work with an attorney.
And you only pay a fee when you win.
Do you want to talk about your individual case and how to get you on better financial footing after health problems disrupted your life?
You can start with a free consultation from Barnes Disability Advocates in Utah.
