Do I Need to Hire an Attorney to File for Disability?

Filing for Social Security Disability seems like a daunting and overwhelming task; you're already physically or mentally challenged and the forms and instructions involved may look like an insurmountable mountain. You want to make sure you fill out and file the forms correctly to increase your chances of approval, yet you're just not sure what to include and what to exclude. You wonder, as you look at all the paperwork, if you are able to do it yourself or if you should seek legal representation. Here is some information that may help you decide.

Disability Determination

• Under the federal Social Security Disability Act, "disability" means the "inability to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment which can be expected to result in death or has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months; or blindness."

  If you have been unable to work because of a medical condition that isn't going to get any better, filing for Disability benefits makes sense. See your care provider regularly, follow their orders, take your prescriptions and have well-documented medical records, because all of this will be scrutinized when you apply for benefits.

Helping Yourself

• While you can certainly file your disability claim yourself, keep in mind the stress that is involved in waiting this process out. Are you sure you can fill out all the paperwork properly? Will you be able to keep track of all the things you should have included, like your medical records? Will you be able to resolve questions during the process, such as whether you should send in copies of updated medical records after you file? Will you worry that your case has fallen between the cracks when you haven't heard anything for months? These are all questions that you need to ask yourself before deciding whether you should do the filing yourself. This may be your only chance to guarantee an income and medical coverage, so if you choose to do it yourself, make sure you can handle it.

  Very few claims are approved on first application, but you can increase those chances by submitting up-to-date medical records and a Residual Function Capacity Form (RFC) from your doctor. If you are turned down, appeal the decision. If you are turned down on appeal, ask for an Administrative Hearing, which will be a face-to-face hearing with a Administrative Law Judge, which isn't as scary as it sounds. At the hearing, the judge will ask you questions, and there may be a vocational expert there to see if he/she thinks there are other jobs you could do.

Getting Help with Your Claim

• You may think that you can't afford an attorney to represent you. This is a specialized area of law that has specific rules on how much an attorney can be paid, and ONLY if you win your case. In other words, if you don't win, you owe nothing. A disability representative, or attorney, is limited to collecting 25% of the back-pay owed to you, with a limit of $5300. When you consider that your chances of approval at an Administrative Hearing level greatly improve when you are represented by a lawyer, it makes sense to have one at your side.

  While you can obtain an attorney at any stage of the process, you can save yourself a lot of stress by doing it early. Let the attorney worry about meeting deadlines, making sure the appropriate paperwork is in order and that all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed.

  Be prepared to wait. Whether you represent yourself or have an attorney, it takes as much as two years to reach an end to the process.