A lot of people might find themselves in need of assistance due to a medical condition. Not being able to perform at work properly due to a mental or physical disability prevents hundreds of people from leading normal lives.
If you’re one of these people, you need to know that you have the legal right to file a disability claim. You might already be thinking of hiring a lawyer to handle the legal minutiae of your case.
If you have doubts about this, this guide should help clear things up for you.
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Unfortunately, there is a high chance that your disability benefits application will be denied. Your next step is to research disability lawyers in your area and choose one with a couple of years’ worth of experience.
Generally, lawyers only accept cases that have chances of success. If a lawyer does accept your case, they will then prepare an initial review.
This means they will need supporting documents and medical evidence to assess the severity of your disability and the restrictions it imposes on your life.
During the initial review, your lawyer will understand how to utilize the evidence at hand, inform you whether or not you’re lacking evidence, and gather any missing links that might be supportive of your claim.
Prepare for the SSA Hearing
Your lawyer will likely arrange a pre-hearing meeting with you before your hearing with the Social Security Administration (SSA).
This hearing can either be over the phone or in person, but the questions posed by your lawyer won’t change.
The legal advisors at laportelawfirm.com/supplemental-security-income/ say that most lawyers will ask for information like a clear description of your disability, whether or not you can walk a flight of stairs or carry heavy things, and the circumstances that render you disabled.
Their goal is to match your medical records to your claim, as this is the key element to any successful disability claim.
Note that you will also need to go through appropriate testing, which the SSA provides, in order to determine whether or not you qualify for disability benefits.
They Will Help you Gather Medical Evidence
Medical evidence is one of the most important elements to win any disability claim.
Although some people might face a bit of trouble when retrieving their medical records, this shouldn’t be a difficult endeavor, especially with your lawyer backing you up.
In order to gain access to your medical records, your attorney will ask you to sign a medical privacy release so they can retrieve them for you.
Moreover, your lawyer will contact your doctors in order to get written statements detailing your diagnosis, prognosis, and other medical details pertinent to your disability, such as the one they can find in the RFC )residual functional capacity) assessment.
Some lawyers also ask their clients to undergo a consultative examination, which can be performed by an SSA doctor.
Communicating with Medical Providers
A supportive medical opinion will increase the value of your claim, as it increases your chances of winning the case, so it’s a must that your lawyer attempts to communicate with medical providers.
It’s true that some doctors can be unwilling to help disability applicants, as they may not be familiar with how the process goes in the first place and, therefore, intimidated by its legal implications.
In other cases, they might be too busy with filling out forms. In addition to that, some doctors might be subjective when it comes to SSA benefits or they may not believe that an applicant is actually disabled.
However, if there’s one thing that doctors might respond to, it is communicating with another professional. Your lawyer, in that case, will act as a professional façade for you.
In addition, lawyers who have gone through cases similar to yours already have experience dealing with medical practitioners, which will enable them to address the questions or the concerns that the applicant has in a more professional manner.
This has made a lot of doctors more inclined to help disability claim applicants.
A Great Assistance at the Hearing Process
Have you ever wondered why applicants with lawyers are always more likely to win an appeal? That’s because seasoned lawyers are familiar with appeal healing processes.
The more experienced your lawyer is, the higher your chances of success you’ll get. With that, there will be little room for mistake and better chances of you winning the claim.
The Bad Facts
There are quite a number of instances in which applicants’ medical records included information that did more harm than good for their case. This is usually known as ‘bad facts’.
When you’re all on your own in a hearing, it will be difficult to address these issues in a methodical way. These facts might be a doctor’s opinion who stated that the applicant is not disabled or that they are just exaggerating their symptoms.
In other cases, bad facts can be inconsistent patterns of the applicant when following a treatment plan or they haven’t seen a doctor for years.
An experienced disability lawyer will be able to address and confront these facts to minimize the damage they inflict on the case.
Vocational Experts
In hearings, the SSA hires vocational experts (VEs) in order to tell what type of work the applicants can do in their light medical conditions.
The Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) will pose a series of questions for the VE that is referred to as hypotheticals.
With the collected evidence of the applicant’s condition, these questions will be directed to the VE to see what kinds of jobs the applicant can pursue with their medical condition.
If a VE testifies that an applicant can work, the claim will instantly be denied. To counter that, disability lawyers’ training will provide counterarguments to go against the VE’s testimony, which will elicit supportive opinions of your claim.
As you can see, lawyers can be of major help when you’re trying to claim disability benefits. A disability lawyer with extensive experience under their belt will help stack the odds in your favor when winning seems impossible.
However, you need to make sure to thoroughly look into your lawyer’s history and check their previous cases first before hiring them.
You can find clients’ reviews on their websites to understand how they operate and determine whether or not they are qualified to handle your case.