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STEP BY STEP IN A TYPICAL SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY CASE

While no two SSDI applications are alike, data over many decades has proven what typically happens to Social Security disability (SSDI) claims.  The following observations are taken from state and national data.

FILE THE APPLICATION - STEP 1

 Your application goes to a state agency, the Disability Determination Service (DDS) which works under contract with the Social Security Administration.   DDS takes months to review your application and will only approve about 22 percent.  So a denial is very likely here.

FILE FOR "RECONSIDERATION" - STEP 2

The first appeal is called "Reconsideration" and it sends your denied claim  back to the people that denied it--the DDS.  "Reconsideration" will take several more months and you will most likely be denied again.  Many of us see "Reconsideration" as a rubber stamp of the initial denial.  Unless you have strong additional evidence, this step is usually a waste of time; however, it is required before you can take your case higher up the appeal chain.

HEARING APPEAL - STEP 3

Your next appeal takes you before the person who has final say on which claims get paid:  a federal Administrative Law Judge (ALJ).  The idea of appearing before a federal judge may be nerve wracking, but it's the best chance you get in the entire process.  The odds of winning at the hearing level are pretty good.  The odds are about 3 times higher if you're represented by legal counsel.   

Your hearing will last about one hour and may be the most important hour of your life.  It will decide--probably once and for all--whether you will ever get a Social Security disability check.  Most claimants only get one hearing, so prepare well and take legal counsel with you to the hearing.

IMPORTANT:  The law does not give you the option to lose your hearing, then go hire a lawyer, and come back.  Once the hearing is done--it is done--over.  

A final warning:  Denials must be appealed within 60 days or the option to appeal goes away.  If you wait too long to file the appeal, the denial becomes the final decision of the Social Security Administration.

Won't Social Security accept my excuse for late appeal and give me another chance?

Probably not.  If you don't file an appeal within the 60-day deadline, you must show "good cause" for not doing so.  There are very few "good" excuses acceptable to the Social Security Administration.  Perhaps if you were in a coma or in the ICU they might let you file a late appeal.  But generally there are no second chances.  We see good disability claims die because the claimant waited too long to appeal.  The 60-day deadline is a very strict rule of law. 

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Contact the Forsythe Firm in Huntsville if you need help with a disability application, appeal or hearing.  We only represent Social Security cases--nothing else.  Free consultations and we will never ask you for money.  Call (256) 799-0297.   

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