Skip to main content

MY EXPERIENCE WITH "TV LAWYERS"

What a Client Told Me About Her Experience with TV Lawyers

 



I am addicted to late night TV, so I sit up and watch reruns on HGTV or the Super Station.  That's where I saw the TV lawyer.
A congenial man in his early fifties with slightly graying hair, a pleasant smile and convincing voice.  He told me that if I needed disability benefits, he could help me get them.  In 30 seconds he had me convinced that he would be working just for me.  
It never occurred to me that he wasn't a lawyer at all; he was an actor who played a lawyer on TV commercials.  But he plastered an 800 telephone number on the screen and was so warm and convincing that I wrote down the number.  Next day I gave him a call.
A woman answered in a call center.  I could hear several other operators carrying on conversations with other callers.  She took my number and promised that someone would call me back the same day.  I wasn't really expecting the TV lawyer to call but then I didn't really know what to expect.
Later that afternoon another woman called me.  She asked a lot of questions about my disability and explained what her firm could do for me.  Since it didn't cost anything unless I got my benefits approved, I agreed to sign up. About a week later, a big packet of forms arrived from Chicago.  So, the TV lawyer wasn't in Huntsville, at all.
I completed the forms and sent them back.  There was some infrequent contact by mail and one or two phone calls in the following year.  Finally, my hearing date approached.  About two weeks before my hearing, a man from the disability firm in Chicago called to explain the hearing.  We spent 20 minutes on the phone.  He told me to arrive at the hearing one hour early and my lawyer would meet me there.
As expected, my lawyer met me at the hearing location.  He wasn't at all like the handsome TV lawyer.  He was OK but didn't seem to know much about me.  After all, he had never met me.  We had talked for about 5 minutes when the hearing clerk came out and interrupted us.
"Our 10 o'clock hearing was a no-show," she said.  "The judge wants to go ahead and start your hearing right away if possible."
So, having talked to my lawyer for less than 10 minutes, we headed into the hearing, complete strangers....going into a hearing that would determine my financial destiny.  I began to wonder if maybe that TV lawyer had let me down.
_________

The moral to this story is to think about it before you call a TV lawyer on a distant 1-800 phone number.  You never know who you are calling.  Almost certainly, these calls are not answered in Huntsville, and probably not in Alabama.  You may be hiring a lawyer 1500 miles away.  And you won't meet him/her until a few minutes before your hearing starts. All of your contacts will be by mail or long distance phone calls.  If that's what you want, then call the TV guy.  However, if you want a local representative with an office here in Huntsville, this may not be your best option.  If you want someone who can meet early in the process and get to know before the hearing, maybe a local representative is a better option. (My clients come to my office at least twice before a hearing and they have my personal cell phone number). Certainly, if you want more personal attention to your case, the faraway 1-800 lawyer may not be your first choice.  

Ironically, the TV law firm won't even fly one of their lawyers down to Alabama for your hearing.  They will call a lawyer in Alabama and contract with him or her to handle the hearing for them.  So, you may end up with a local lawyer, just one that you didn't get to choose and never had a chance to meet.  The TV lawyer choose a local lawyer for you.

So, why not choose your own local representative?   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CAN YOU WIN YOUR DISABILITY APPEAL WITHOUT A LAWYER?

The Social Security Administration does not require you to have a lawyer to file an appeal or to appear at a hearing.  However, most people heading for a disability hearing will hire a lawyer or advocate to help them.   Studies have shown that you are about twice as likely to win with a lawyer.  A recent study found that claimants with no lawyer win about 30 percent of the time while claimants with a lawyer or advocate win 60 percent of the time.   " He just cooked his own goose." These statistics cover only one aspect of a disability appear--your odds of winning. The other important aspects are time and convenience. If you prepare and adjudicate your own disability appeal, expect to spend 12 to 24 months working on the case.  You will be collecting, reading and submitting hundreds or thousands of pages of medical records.  These records are complex and often difficult to understand.  And you must know how each medical record helps (or hurts) your dis...
Post a Comment
Read more

GET YOUR APPLICATION RIGHT - GET PAID SSDI B ENEFITS

  Get your Social Security application right - get paid.   There are hundreds of ways to mess up a Social Security disability application.  One of the most common ways that I see?  Blank lines.  Questions left blank.  One way or another, these questions will get answered before a decision is made on your claim.  They may get answered 6 months later when the Social Security office calls you--but you have just wasted 6 months.   Worse yet, Social Security may assume that since you didn't answer the questions, all the answers are "no," so nobody bothers to call you. This will lead to a negative action on your claim.   The complete disability application will consist, not just of the basic application, but several forms.  Many of those forms will be mailed to you AFTER you file the claim.  The following is always required for a complete application: The basic disability application (5 pages)  Disability Report (14 p...
Post a Comment
Read more

HOW TO PASS A SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY EXAM

  So, Social Security is sending you to one of their doctors for an exam.  The first thing you may ask is, How do I pass this exam?   First, I should say that Social Security exams are not "pass or fail."  The doctor or examiner cannot tell Social Security whether or not you are disabled or whether you should get a benefit.  The doctor is going to check certain facts. For example, the doctor may check the range of motion in your joints and list the measurements. They may check your grip strength. (S)he may determine if you have difficulty walking, squatting, kneeling standing from a seated position.  The examiner may answer specific questions asked by Social Security: Is the use of a cane or assistive device medically necessary? Why is it necessary? Can the claimant use his/her hands to grasp and hold objects? Is the claimant able to understand and follow simple directions?  Here is advice I give my clients for a Social Security examination:  ...
Post a Comment
Read more