I just got my denial letter for ssdi. I am going to appeal it...does it do any good at this point to get a lawyer?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Lorie :angel:

Sorry to hear that you have been denied. We did the appeal ourselves. Some people have told us that they hired a lawyer to do the appeal process and they got approved without having to go thru a hearing. We did not hire a lawyer until after my hubby got denied twice and now we have been waiting on a hearing since May of 05. So I guess you just do what your instinct tells you.

Nancy

Hey Lorie,
I didnt think I woudl run into you, I have been denied twice now, had my hearing on Feb. 10, 2006, waiting for my letter. I had a lawyer from the start, it didnt seem to hurry anything along at all. But I think you have a better chance that the lawyers office can obtain medical info much easier than you can by yourself. The biggest thing is to have every tiny bit of info there. My hearing was to determine when I became disabled not if I was or not, thats encouraging.

I hope you have patients cuz your gonna need it. It took me since sept. 02 and were still not done yet. Good Luck!

Carol :wave:

Lorie
We called a lawyer as soon as my husband got his denial letter. He talked with us and told us what we needed to do and get. We were told in our state in the appeal process can take about 14 months before the case comes before anyone. If you use a lawyer who specializes in social security disability cases (which I might say you should) they do not charge for the intial consult. They then only get paid if and when you get approved. They would get 25% of your back due,,,nothing from future checks and there is a cap of $5300.00. So if you are owed anything over 22,000 in back due they get no more than the cap amount.
I would suggest you consult a lawyer you have a better shot. We feel it is worth the money.
The lose of income can devast a family and you can't make any money till after you are approved even if you can work part time.

i would really highly reccomend at this stage,to hire a disability lawyer.thats what i did after I had been denied the first time around.just being able to actually get the badly needed disability for me,it was worth the money,and like what CK stated above,they can only take 25% of any back pay that you may be owed and nothing more.

but as far as them being able to obtain any medical info easier than you can,well that definitely was not the case in my process.the one document that was missing from my file that proved the surgical injury to my nerves was not in my neuros op notes so I personally had to track down the neurophysiatrist who monitored my motor and sensory during my surgery myself.there was no way that disability or my lawyer could have gone thru the nightmare that I had to undertake just finding out this docs name and tracking down the monitoring clinic that he came out of.it was alot of phone work and plain old detective work that finally got me to that docs door so i could request his op notes from my surgery.my lawyer never would have been able to stay on top of this crap like i did.

just make sure to accumulate any new info on your condition from any place that has ever treated you and is currently treating you when you start in this second go round.

In my opinion,whether or not this is really true or not,i do think that getting that lawyer will kind of show ssd that you are indeed serious here and are willing to give up part of your back pay just to be able to be approved for benefits.thats kind of the way I looked at it at the time.the lawyer will be helpful at this stage of the game by making sure you have all bases covered and also,with my lawyer,they sent me some papers to fill out that really were much more detailed than some I got from ssd.these really helped my case as well,i think anyways.

i was also asked to,for the first time during this stage see one of the ssd phyc docs as I was also and still am suffering from some pretty severe depression.i obtained a copy of the ssd docs report thru my own doc and he found me to have severe recurrent depression.i KNOW without a doubt that this really helped my case alot.

just make sure to do all the needed paperwork and stuff within that 60 day alloted time frame.

My whole process took only 9 months where i know some others have been waiting for actual years just for that approval.I really was shocked that my approval came that quickly.it was a total blessing when it came tho as we were in major medical debt and also on the verge of possibly losing our home.I do think the lawyer was a big help and would seriously consult one at this point.thats just my opinion but in my case,it really did help,alot.i wish you lots of luck here.please let us know how things go.marcia

We did lose our home. My husband applied for disability in December of 2004 and filed for his hearing in May of 2005 and we are still waiting. They say that it depends on what state you live in and how backlogged that state is as to how fast you get in for a hearing. Believe me it is a very frustrating process, but you have to stay strong and believe in yourself and eventually it will pay off. When my dad got his almost 10 years he got a check for over $15,000 which was nice. Sure it did not help them while they were fighting SSDI but it sure helped afterwards.
Praying for my hubby and anyone fighting for SSDI.

Stay safe and stay strong.
Nancy

Thank you all for your wisdom! I did contact a lawyer and I have applied for a reconsideration of the decision. We'll see how it goes. Thanks again,
Lorie :angel: