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YOUR CHANCES AT THE APPEALS COUNCIL (AC)

Your odds of winning a $million at the lottery are 1 in 292 million.  

Everything in life comes with odds. 

 Odds with Social Security disability are a lot better, but still risky.

If your disability claim is denied at the hearing level, your next step is with the Appeals Council (AC).  That's a group of  appeal judges headquartered just outside Washington, DC at Falls Church, VA.

Your odds at the hearing were about 50/50.  At the Appeals Council (AC), the odds are drastically worse.  Here is the average AC case disposition:

2 percent are awarded benefits.  

14 percent are remanded (sent back) to the hearing office for a new hearing.

84 percent are denied--so that the denial by the administrative law judge is upheld.

By the way, there is no hearing and no personal appearance before the Appeals Council.  Everything is submitted on paper and is reviewed in the absence of the claimant or the representative. It's a paper review.

The AC does not try to decide whether you are disabled or whether you meet the rules for a disability benefit.That's has already been decided by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). The only questions by the AC are:  Did the ALJ give you a fair hearing, and did the ALJ violate any Social Security regulation which might have produced an unfair decision?  If neither of these are true, the Appeals Council will not provide any relief.

So, the AC will not re-hear your case.  It will not try to decide if the administrative law judge made the correct decision in the hearing.  

I often see claimants who want to appeal their case to the AC because they disagree with the judge's decision.  But the real question is:  How did the hearing judge violate the rules?  How were the claimant's rights violated?  If no rules were violated, the AC will not reverse the judge's decision and will not remand the case for further action, whether it agrees with the judge's decision or not.

It's impossible to under-estimate the importance of the hearing.  The hearing is the best chance to win the claim.  If you attend your hearing unrepresented and are denied, there is no other further good chance to win.  Your one and only best-chance is gone and isn't coming back.  That's why it is so important to be prepared and represented at your hearing.  Most likely, you will not get a second hearing. 

 Make your one and only hearing count!  Be prepared.  Be represented.

____________

The Forsythe Firm, Huntsville, AL (256) 799-0297.

 

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