At the Charles Hall Law Firm, we are always working on Social Security Disability cases. That’s what we do.  We want to provide you with valuable information to answer your questions. You can explore the site, call us, chat live with a firm representative, and fill out a FREE Case Review form to get started. Our offices are located in Raleigh and Fayetteville; and we also serve clients in 62 counties across North Carolina every day.

On this site, we will discuss the following topics:

• How to file Social Security disability
• Why SSI disability lawyers are needed
• Why we are only working on Social Security disability cases
• Social Security locations
• Disability benefits
• Answers to your frequently asked questions
• ….and much more.

We hope that you find the information on this site helpful. Know that at The Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we specialize in Disability Law.  If you are a Social Security Disability Claimant or are thinking about filing a Social Security Application, find comfort in knowing that we don’t try to practice every type of law like other law firms. We are always working on Social Security Disability cases and are happy to help with yours as well. Whether you are in Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Roanoke Rapids or their many surrounding areas, we are here to help.

Question:

Answer: You probably won’t find out whether you’ve won your Social Security disability hearing until after the day of the hearing. We’ll get the decision later. They’ll mail it out to both you and me at the same time but I can check these things online. I’ll probably know before you get the letter. I’ll let you know right away if I find a decision. I’ll let you know regardless of whether the decision is a good one or a bad one.

Sometimes, the judge tells us at the hearing if he or she intends to allow your claim. Oddly, sometimes my clients are so nervous that they don’t understand what has happened even when the judge has told them in a straightforward way.

There are other times when the judge lays it between the lines. Basically, the judge tells me that he or she intends to approve but does it in such a way that I can tell what’s being said even if my client can’t. If that happens, I’ll let you know right away.

As to how long it takes, this can really vary. At this point with the Raleigh hearing office, we’re almost always getting a decision in less than three month. Favorable decisions tend to come in faster than unfavorable decisions but don’t get too hung up on that. It can sometimes take almost two months even when we know it’s going to be favorable.

It's Not Like This! I Swear!

Question: What goes on at a Social Security disability hearing?

Answer: I can assure you that what goes on at a Social Security disability hearing is a lot less scarey than you think. There’s no need to be like the lady pictured here. It’s not a math test! You aren’t going to get denied because you can’t remember the answer to a question. For most of the questions, it may be less a matter of what you say than how you answer the question — how you come across. You can’t control that.

Many of my clients thought they were just going to die because they were so nervous at their hearing. None has died yet at a hearing. I’ve never had EMTs called to a hearing.

The truth is that what goes on at a Social Security disability hearing is pretty straight forward. You’ll be asked to answer some questions. They’ll be pretty straight forward questions. We’ll probably start out very simply. What’s your name? What’s your address? What’s your date of birth? The hardest questions for most people concern their work history. People tend to forget who they worked for when, especially if they have been moving from job to job. We’ll then go into what’s disabling you and how it affects your life and your ability to work. You’re not likely to forget that, are  you? We’ll probably finish with you answering some questions about your daily routines, how much housework you do and so forth.

I tell people that having a Social Security disability hearing is about as stressful as getting your drivers license renewed.

People complain a lot about these consultative examinations but what can you expect with this kind of fee schedule.

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue

Social Security’s Commissioner Michael Astrue has sent out a press release announcing that 52 conditions have been added to the agency’s Compassionate Allowance list. The list is more than a little ridiculous. It’s the sort of thing that sounds wonderful to the those who are unfamiliar with the ways things really work at Social Security. Those of us who do, mostly roll our eyes. These additions to the compassionate allowance list won’t even be effective until August 13, 2012.

Anyway, here are the newly added conditions:

• Aicardi-Goutieres Syndrome
• Alobar Holoprosencephaly
• Alpers Disease
• Alpha Mannosidosis
• Carcinoma of Unknown Primary Site
  
• Cerebrotendinous Xanthomatosis
• Child Neuroblastoma
  
• Child Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
  
• Chondrosarcoma with multimodal therapy
• Cornelia de Lange Syndrome-Classic Form
• Ewings Sarcoma
• Follicular Dendritic Cell Sarcoma with metastases
• Fucosidosis – Type 1
• Galactosialidosis – Early Infantile Type
• Glioma Grade III and IV
• Hallervorden-Spatz Disease
• Hepatoblastoma
• Histiocytosis
• Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome
• Hydranencephaly
• Hypocomplementemic Urticarial Vasculitis
• Hypophosphatasia Perinatal lethal Form
• I Cell disease
• Infantile Free Sialic Acid Storage Disease
• Juvenile Onset Huntington Disease
• Kufs Disease Type A and B
• Lissencephaly
• Lymphomatoid Granulomatosis Grade III
• Malignant Brain Stem Gliomas – Childhood
• Malignant Melanoma with metastases
  
• Mastocytosis Type IV
• Medulloblastoma with metastasis
• Merkel Cell Carcinoma with metastases
• Myocolonic Epilepsy and Ragged Red Fibers Syndrome
• Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis Obliterative Bronchiolitis
• Ohtahara Syndrome
• Orthochromatic Leukodystrophy with Pigmented Glia
• Pearson Syndrome
• Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease-Classic Form
• Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease-Connatal Form
• Peripheral Nerve Cancer – metastatic or recurrent
  
• Perry  Syndrome
• Rhabdomyosarcoma
• Rhizomelic Chondrodysplasia Punctata
• Schindler Disease Type 1
• Smith Lemli Opitz Syndrome
• Spinal Nerve Root Cancer- metastatic or recurrent
• Stiff Person Syndrome
• Tabes Dorsalis
• Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome
• Xeroderma Pigmentosum
  

Is Social Security going to run out of numbers? Not for many decades. This is the Social Security Administration’s answer to the question:

Recently, I recorded some new TV ads. They’re on the air now. I’d be interested in what you think. I’ve got a lot of experience as a lawyer but not much as an ad maker. I’d be interested in what you think. Tell me what you think.

See anything odd about them? You will if you look at them too long. Hint: Look at my glasses.

Answer: Probably not. Certainly, severe mitral valve prolapse can not only be disabling but fatal if left untreated. Normally, though, a person who has a severe mitral valve prolapse has surgery, the valve is replaced and the person gets on with their life. As severe heart conditions go, mitral valve prolapse is one of the most easily treatable.

Mitral valve prolapse is not a rare condition. Many people have it to a milder degree. It can often be treated without surgery. I wouldn’t want to hear that I had a heart problem. I wouldn’t want to have to think about having open heart surgery and that’s what’s involved when a mitral valve is replaced.

Almost everyone who come to me talking about a mitral valve issue is also talking about other health problems they have. Usually, we’ll get more traction on a Social Security disability claim by talking about those other health problems. Sometimes we worry more about a health problem than we should. Sometimes, we don’t worry as much as we should. Whatever the situation, in representing a Social Security disability claimant, I’m thinking about what Social Security is likely to buy. Maybe, it’s the mitral valve prolapse, but maybe it’s the low back pain or the depression or the inflammatory bowel disease.

We help Social Security disability claimants who have all sorts of health problems. We represent many Social Security disability claimants in much of North Carolina, but especially here in the Triangle where our headquarters are. Whether you are in Zebulon or Hillsborough, Wake Forest or Apex, we can help.

Question: Do you handle Social Security appeals?

Answer: You bet we do! We handle all kinds of Social Security appeals.

Here are all possible levels of review of a Social Security disability case:

• Initial
• Reconsideration — the first level of appeal
• Request for hearing — the second level of appeal. This is where a case goes before an Administrative Law Judge.
• Appeals Council — the third level of appeal and the last one within Social Security.
• U.S. District Court — the fourth level of appeal and the first one outside Social Security.
• U.S. Court of Appeals — the fifth level of appeal. Very, very few cases go this far.
• U.S. Supreme Court — the sixth and final level of appeal. They only hear your case if they want to. Not even one case a year goes this far. I have never taken a case to the Supreme Court but, maybe your case will be the first. I hope not for your sake since it takes several years to get this far.

My firm’s goal is not to take your case up on one appeal after another. Our goal is to win your case as early in the process as possible. Unfortunately, Social Security can be stubborn. If they keep denying you, we may have no choice but to keep appealing.

The Charles T. Hall Law Firm handles appeals not only for our clients but for clients of other law firms. They turn to our experience when their clients need to appeal to the U.S. District Courts.

We help Social Security claimants in a wide area of North Carolina. Whether you are in a bigger city like Raleigh or Greensboro or a smaller town like Farmville or Raeford, we can help.

Answer: Probably not for Raynaud’s Disease itself but maybe if the Reynaud’s is part of a larger rheumatic problem.

Raynaud’s Disease or Syndrome or Phenomenon, as it is often called, is a problem with the blood circulation going to the fingers or toes.  The blood vessels ordinarily contract when exposed to cold, causing the fingers or toes to blanch, that is, turn white. In Raynaud’s the contraction of the blood vessels gets way out of hand. Minor exposure to cold causes the blood flow to the fingers or toes to almost completely shut down and stay shut down for a long, long time. This is painful and can lead to sores on the hands or feet or even areas of gangrene! See the photos to the left if you wonder whether this could be a serious matter.

Some mild or moderate degree of Raynaud’s is not uncommon in younger women. That can certainly be unpleasant but it’s not going to get you Social Security disability. More severe Raynaud’s is usually associated with some rheumatic disease such as Rheumatoid Arthritis or Systemic Lupus Erythematosus. In these cases, the person may be coping not only with very severe Raynaud’s but with other symptoms of severe rheumatic disease. That can definitely get a person on Social Security disability.

We help people with Raynaud’s and other rheumatic diseases. We represent Social Security claimants over a wide area of North Carolina. Whether it’s Raleigh or Durham or Wilson or Rocky Mount or High Point, we can help.

Question:

Answer: It may be quite possible, depending upon how badly your heart is damaged?

Dilated cardiomyopathy is where the heart gets damaged, by something such as high blood pressure, infection or heart attack. Sometimes, no one can ever figure out what caused the dilated cardiomyopathy. The damaged heart becomes enlarged — or dilated — and pumps blood poorly. This leads to congestive heart failure. Doctors can give medicine. They may even be able to do some surgery to help but dilated cardiomyopathy is a serious matter. It can sap a person’s strength and energy and make it impossible for them to work.

The most important thing for Social Security in dilated cardiomyopathy cases is the Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (LVEF). This is a basic test for how well the heart is pumping blood. The LVEF can be roughly gauged in an ultrasound and more precisely measured in a cardiac catheterization. If you have dilated cardiomyopathy, you ought to ask your doctor about your ejection fraction. Normal is 55-70%. You will definitely have symptoms when it gets below 40%. If it stays below 30%, you are very likely to be approved for Social Security disability but you certainly do not have to get that low to be approved. If it gets below 20% you either get a new heart or a heart assist device or you die. Obviously, this is a pretty important number if you have dilated cardiomyopathy.

Your likelihood of sucess with a Social Security disability claim based upon dilated cardiomyopathy depends upon how old you are and what other illnesses you have.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we represent people who have Social Security disability claims based upon dilated cardiomyopathy. We represent claimants over a wide area of North Carolina. From Norlina to Lumberton, from Southern Pines to Snow Hill, we can help.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for a herniated disk?

Answer: Very possibly.

A disk is a leathery bag filled with a jelly like material that lies between the vertebrae, that is the bones in our spines. The disk is a shock absorber and cushion between these bones. The disk can get a weak spot in its side which bulges out more and more. When the bulge gets large, it is called a herniated disk, that is a disk with a hernia in its side. The problem with a herniated disk is that everything is pretty tight in the spine. There’s little room for a herniated disk to just push out. It generally ends up pressing on one of the nerves that branch out to the body. The nerve does not like being pressed upon. This causes pain. The odd thing is that the pain is not felt so much at the area of the herniated disk as at the area that the nerve serves. In the low back, this is called sciatica. It doesn’t have any special name when it’s in the neck but it still hurts — generally in the shoulders or arms.

Social Security doesn’t make it easy to get paid based upon pain, whether it’s due to a herniated disk or something else. Being over 50 or, better yet, over 55 helps, since age makes a big difference to Social Security. Regular medical care helps. Your medical history certainly matters, as does the opinions of your treating physicians.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we help people with disability claims based upon herniated disks. We represent claimants over a wide area of North Carolina. From Siler City to Sanford, from Mebane to Morehead City, give us a call for help with your Social Security disability claim.

Question: They put a metal plate in my after I broke a bone. Can I get Social Security disability?

Answer: Maybe. Most of the time when you have a metal plate put in because of a broken bone, you get better and go back to work in a few weeks to a few months. To get Social Security disability (unless you are literally dying) you must have been out of work for at least a year or be expected to be out of work for at least a year. Sometimes fractures take that long to heal. Sometimes they never heal.

Metal plates aren’t used for all fractures. They are generally used for the more serious fractures. More serious fractures tend to leave behind problems. That bone or joint is never the same again. This residual damage may be enough that Social Security will consider you disabled. A lot depends upon your age. It’s less difficult to get on Social Security disability if you are over 50, especially if you are 55 or older.

We will be happy to look at your case involving a metal plate for a fracture. Just contact us. We represent Social Security claimants over a wide area of North Carolina. Whether you are in Winston-Salem or Morehead City, Henderson or Lumberton, contact us. We’ll be happy to talk with you about your case.

Question: What’s the most you can get in Social Security disability back benefits?

Answer: In rare cases, a person can get more than $100,000 in back Social Security disability benefits. Please remember, I said “in rare cases.” I have had several clients over the years receive more than $100,000 in back benefits. Most of them received the back benefits under the Hyatt class action. The Hyatt class action is over now for all practical purposes. I think I have had one or two non-Hyatt cases to get over $100,000 in back benefits but there were special circumstances involved that allowed the reopening of very old claims.

In more practical terms, the back benefits for a case that goes to a hearing can vary from $0 to around $50,000 with most somewhere a bit below the middle of that range. The amount of the back benefits is determined by the monthly amounts involved and that depends mostly on your past earnings and on the number of months involved. The goal is to get you on benefits long before the back benefits mount up to anything like $100,000 or even $50,000. You might wonder what happens if we win your case but you receive no back benefits. In that situation, we get no fee. I won’t lie and say I enjoy it when that happens but I certainly congratulate my client — and mean it. It’s part of the business of representing Social Security disability claimants.

If you need help with your Social Security disability claim, we’re here to help you. We represent NC residents from Raleigh to Clinton, from Thomasville to little Washington.

Glenn Sklar, Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR)

• Sklar and the other speakers from Social Security appeared by video link because of budget related travel limitations at Social Security.
• ODAR opened eight of the sixteen hearing offices it wanted to open in the fiscal year (FY) 2011, which ended on September 30, 2011.
• New hearing offices will be opening soon in Moreno Valley, CA and Reno, NV.
• In FY 2011, ODAR hired 143 Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) but lost 97 to retirement, death, etc.
• ALJ “quality numbers” are quite good despite increased ALJ productivity. [How does one measure the quality of ALJ decisions?]
• Sklar’s presentation was briefly interrupted by an announcement blaring over the intercom at the building from which he was speaking.
• ODAR is shooting for a 270 day time frame for processing cases at the hearing level. Sklar referred to this as “the right number.” [Historically, this is a modest goal. Over the entire history of ODAR and its predecessors, the processing time has usually been far lower. However, 270 days is a huge improvement over where we have been in recent years. ]
• ODAR has been “pushed to our limits by this recession.”
• Receipts of new requests for hearing are now in the 70,000-80,000 range per month.
• ODAR is working to reduce backlogs in hearing non-disability cases and have made considerable progress. [I have heard about this backlog before. I do not understand why these cases were ever processed on a different timeframe than disability cases.]
• 7,800 appointed representatives have e-folder access.
• 77% of cases at ODAR have representatives who have e-folder access.
• ODAR wants to give attorneys and other representatives access to a case status summary report that would list each case the attorney has at ODAR and its status on one page. [When?]
• Sklar showed interesting maps which visually displayed the numbers of people awaiting a hearing before an ALJ who live more than 75 miles from a Social Security hearing site. The maps showed dramatic improvement over the past year. I hope that Social Security will make these maps available online. The remaining areas with poor coverage appeared to be in sparsely populated areas in the Western U.S.
• Because of budget constraints, ODAR is not replacing employees who leave.
• ODAR is working towards national scheduling of hearings, using software currently being developed. [Will it work better than the e-pulling software?]
• Attorneys can object to expert witnesses testifying by telephone at ALJ hearings but the alternative may be interrogatories to the expert witness.

Patricia Jonas, Executive Director of the Office of Appellate Operations

• Case receipts at the Appeals Council were up 34.7%  in FY 2011 over FY 2010.
• 13,995 civil actions were filed in the federal courts appealing from Social Security cases in FY 2011. This was up 12% from FY 2010.
• There were 5,881 remands from federal court in FY 2011 which was down 1.8% from FY 2010.
• In FY 2011 the Division of Quality completed review of 3,692  ALJ decisions that had not been appealed.
• Requests for Appeals Council review should not be filed using the electronic file. There is currently no way of filing requests for Appeals Council review online. I heard no mention of a plan to make this available.

And Some Question From The Floor

• Sklar and Jonas were kind enough to take questions from the floor. I hurried to the mike. My question concerned the bad publicity that ODAR had received earlier this year about a West Virginia ALJ who had been allowing almost all the claimants whose cases he heard. In the wake of this, there had been talk at ODAR of “outlier” ALJs with high allowance rates and of some sort of reviews of those “outlier” ALJs. I mentioned that some ALJs are concerned about being targeted. I asked what is going on and what is planned. [The answers given was not a model of clarity. Indeed, it was noticeable that Sklar said twice that he wanted to be "very clear." I had the impression that he might have more accurately said that he wanted to be "very careful" about what he said in order to avoid being "clear".] The answer, as I understood it, was that there was considerable pressure to do something about ALJs who are allowing a lot of disability claims and that Sklar feels compelled to do something. Because of limitations in place as a result of old litigation, ODAR cannot target individual ALJs for review by the Appeals Council. However, ODAR is trying to get around these limitations by post-effectuation reviews of ALJ decisions and these post-effectuation reviews are targeting individual ALJs and individual hearing offices. Post-effectuation reviews are reviews of ALJ decisions after the claimant has been paid. Generally, these reviews do not result in overturning the ALJ decision. Probably, the ALJ and the claimant will be unaware of the review. [It is not clear to me what point there is to post-effectuation review. I understand why ALJs are concerned about these reviews but they don't seem to me to be of any importance. Other steps could be taken that would be of consequence, but those steps do not seem to be in the works.]
• Neither Sklar nor Jonas spoke to the issue of whether there will be increased own motion reviews of ALJ decisions.[This would be a big deal.]
• In response to another questioner, Sklar said it may be three to five years before there is electronic access to claimant files pending at the initial and reconsideration levels.

Nancy Shor, Executive Director of NOSSCR

• 1,080 people have registered for the San Antonio conference.
• Lisa DeSoto, who was previously employed at Social Security is now a Congressional aide. She was sitting behind the Chairman of the House Social Security Subcommittee at a recent hearing.
• There is increasing concern that Social Security’s disability trust fund will be exhausted by 2018. When there have been problems of this sort in the past, tax revenues were re-directed from the retirement and survivors trust fund. Because of Republican behavior during the recent debt ceiling crisis, there is concern that there may be a Republican attempt to force massive changes in Social Security’s disability programs as the price for replenishing the disability trust fund.
• There is talk of reducing Social Security disability benefits. Currently, Disability Insurance Benefits are 100% of a claimant’s Primary Insurance Amount (PIA). However, when an individual takes Social Security retirement benefits prior to full retirement age, that there is an actuarial reduction in benefits, currently 25% for retiring at age 62. There is talk of applying the same sort of reduction to Disability Insurance Benefits.
• The cap on the user fee which reduces attorney fees under the Social Security Act will go up to $86 in 2012.

Painted By A Man Who May Have Been Manic Depressive

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for being manic depressive?

Answer: Yes, you can possibly get Social Security disability for being manic depressive.

Although I think the manic depressive is a better term for it, doctors now call it bipolar disorder. It is a chronic psychiatric disorder in which an individual alternates between intense highs — the manic phase — and intense lows — the depressive phase. It’s hard for a person to show up for work in either phase much less concentrate on the job once there.

It is often possible for people who are manic depressive to be stabilized with medication so that they do not suffer the dramatic highs and lows. There are plenty of happy, productive people who happen to be bipolar. Unfortunately, not everyone responds to medication. We’re here to help those who don’t respond to medication get on Social Security disability.

Unfortunately, there is a high degree of association between manic depressive illness and substance abuse. They two are probably linked genetically. Substance abuse makes it harder to get on Social Security disability no matter what else is wrong with you, but it is particularly a problem if you have a psychiatric disorder such as bipolar disorder.

It is important that you stay under psychiatric care if you are manic depressive. That is important no matter what else is going on in your life. It is particularly important if you want to get on Social Security disability.

We represent Social Security disability claimants with manic depressive illness and many other types of health problems over a wide area of North Carolina. From Graham to Greenville, from Chapel Hill to Clayton, we can help.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for sciatica?

Answer: Yes, if it is bad enough.

Sciatica is pain radiating from the low back to one or both legs caused by pressure on a nerve root in the low back. It is not the same thing as low back pain because the pain from sciatica is experienced in the buttocks, groin or legs, not the low back. People with sciatica often, perhaps usually, have low back pain in addition to their sciatica and the cause may be similar but it’s still a different thing.

Sciatica is most commonly caused by a herniated or ruptured disk in the low back. The disks are a little like pillows. They lie between the vertebrae, the bones in your back. They cushion the vertebrae. For various reasons, the side of one of the disks can develop a weak spot and the disk starts bulging at that point. If the bulge gets particularly big, it is a hernia or rupture. It can press on one of the nerves branching out of your spinal cord. This causes pain which is experienced not where the pinching is happening but in the area that the nerve serves.

Social Security does approve disability claims based upon sciatica but it is not automatic or certain. You should expect to have to go to a hearing before a Social Security Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) to have much hope of being approved on the basis of sciatica.

We represent Social Security claimants with sciatica and many other disabling conditions. We represent claimants over a wide area in North Carolina, from Warrenton to Wilson, from Thomasville to Tarboro.

Question:

Answer: Very possibly.

If you have suffered a fracture to either or both of your heels, you know the sad story about heel fractures by now. They never heal or at least they seem never to heal properly. A heel fracture is generally a problem that lasts for the rest of your life. Bilateral heel fractures, that is fractures of both heels, are really bad. People who have suffered this sort of injury have major, major problems walking. Unfortunately, people who have one heel fracture often have two heel fractures. It takes a lot of energy to fracture a heel. The cases I have seen have either occurred when someone fell from some height and landed on both feet or where someone was in a head-on automobile crash, with the feet bearing a huge impact.

When you are talking about an impairment that affects standing and walking, as heel fractures do, age is quite important at Social Security. If you are over 50, a heel fracture is usually strong evidence of disability as long as you have not been doing sedentary work.  If you are under 50 or have been doing sedentary work, it is a bit harder but certainly not impossible, especially if you are dealing with bilateral heel fractures.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we help people with all sorts of disabilities. We represent claimants in a wide area of North Carolina, from Raeford to Ahoskie, from Oxford to Farmville.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for scoliosis?

Answer: Maybe, depending upon how bad it is and some other factors, such as your age.

Like most medical conditions, scoliosis can be mild or severe or anywhere in between. There are some people with mild scoliosis who would never know they had anything wrong with their back if a doctor hadn’t noticed it on an x-ray done for another purpose. If you’re not having symptoms from scoliosis, I can’t get you Social Security disability for it. Of course, there are others with severe scoliosis who have known about the problem almost their entire life, people with severe symptoms, people who can be diagnosed with scoliosis without any x-ray because their bodies are so obviously twisted. These folks qualify easily for Social Security disability.

Most cases I see fall somewhere in between. I think what I see mostly are people who have scoliosis that could have been treated surgically in childhood but which wasn’t or people who have moderate scoliosis that would not have been treated surgically but which has led to disk problems and arthritis problems as the person ages.

Even in the mildest cases, scoliosis is not good and can lead to problems down the line. Treatment can be difficult or impossible.

We represent people who are disabled by scoliosis. We will be happy to talk with you about your Social Security disability claim. We represent claimants over a wide area of North Carolina. Whether you live in Raleigh or Chocowinity, Greensboro or Faison, we can help.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for cardiomegaly?

Answer: If it’s bad enough.

First, what is cardiomegaly? It’s an enlarged heart. An enlarged muscle is generally a good thing. The heart is a muscle so why isn’t it a good thing when the heart enlarges? The problem is that a heart is usually enlarged because it has been damaged by something like high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, infection, inflammation, drug or alcohol abuse, etc. These are various forms of what doctors call cardiomyopathy. An enlarged heart didn’t get bigger because it became more muscular but because it became flabbier, less able to pump blood. You don’t need a medical degree to figure out that if you heart is flabby and doesn’t pump blood like it used to that you’re going to have symptoms. The symptom will probably be that you get tired out very quickly.

Like most things in medicine, cardiomegaly can be mild, moderate or severe. It can be to some extent reversible, that is cardiomegaly can, to some extent, get better.

If you have cardiomegaly, the most important number for you is your ejection fraction, which may be called the Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction, or LVEF. This is a mesaure of how efficiently your heart is pumping blood. Normal is around 60%. Below 40% and you’ll definitely have symptoms. Below 30% and you’ll definitely have serious symptoms. If it stays below 20%, you either have some cardiac assist device implanted (like former Vice President Dick Chaney) or you get a heart transplant or you die.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we represent clients with a wide variety of impairments including cardiomegaly. We represent clients from Mount Airy to Mount Olive, from Elon to Elizabethtown. Contact us for a free review of your case.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for a hernia?

Answer: Only in an extreme case.

I am writing here about abdominal hernias. Herniated disks, for instance, are something else altogether.

Hernias are a fairly common medical problem. A simple little operation takes care of the problem and you’re as good as news. That’s the way it’s supposed to work and the way it generally does work — but not always. Sometimes the surgical repair just doesn’t take. Sometimes the second and third hernia operations don’t work either and the patient is left with a painful hernia and a lot of scar tissue. These cases aren’t common but they do happen.

Most of the hernia cases that I’ve seen win have been ventral hernias. Perhaps these are the hardest to treat. They are certainly less common than inguinal or umbilical hernias.

When I look at a hernia case, I want to know how many operations the person has had, whether they are still under treatment, what sort of symptoms the person has and whether more surgery is planned.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we represent Social Security disability claimants who have all sorts of medical problems, including hernias. If we can help you, please contact us. We represent Social Security disability claimants from Thomasville to Greenville, from Siler City to Morehead City.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for degenerative disc disease?

Answer: Possibly, depending upon how bad it is.

Your spine has quite a few parts. The most important is the spinal cord, the bundle of nerves running from the brain to the body. Individual nerves branch out from the spinal cord to various parts of the body. Supporting the body and protecting the spinal cord are the vertebrae, the bones in our spine. These bones are sort of stacked on top of each other. You can’t have these vertebrae rubbing against each other. They would grind themselves down in no time. Separating the vertebrae are discs (or disks, if you prefer). These are leathery bags with some jellylike material inside them. Think of them as cushion between the vertebrae. With age, these discs degenerate, that is start to break down. The jellylike material inside the discs can get a bit dried out. The leather of the bag starts to break down. The disc does a less satisfactory job of separating and cushioning the vertebrae. This can cause pain, both in the back itself and in the areas of the body served by the nerves affected since they may get pinched by the degeneration of the disc.  The side wall of the disc can develop a weakness and a bulge can develop. A really big bulge is a herniated disc which can really pinch a nerve.

People usually don’t get degenerative disc disease at a young age. Age makes a big difference with Social Security disability claims so often people who cannot work due to degenerative disc disease have good Social Security disability claims.

We would be happy to talk with you about your Social Security disability claim. We represent disability claimants from Advance to Aulander, from Buies Creek to Bailey.

Question:

Answer: Possibly.

Avascular necrosis, which doctors ofter refer to as AVN, is a loss of blood circulation to a portion of a bone. What? Bones need blood circulation? They sure do and if they don’t get it, they die. A dead bone starts deteriorating and eventually collapses. Avascular necrosis can happen in any bone but the most commonly affected area is the head of the femur, known to doctors as the femoral head. The femur is the biggest bone in the body, the one that runs between the knee and the hip. The head of the femur is the ball that fits in the socket of the hip. You don’t have to be a doctor to figure out that that is a bad place to have a bone that’s deteriorating, much less collapsing. An AVN of the femoral head hurts!

The good thing about avascular necrosis of the femoral head is that it can be replaced. An orthopedic surgeon does a total hip replacement — THR is the medical abbreviation — and you’re probably pain free and walking comfortably. The bad thing is that THRs don’t last forever, maybe 10-20 years. The THR can be redone, usually only once and the second time it doesn’t last as long as the first time. What if you get avascular necrosis of your femoral head when you’re 45. Do the math. You may run through what surgery can do for that hip before you’re 65. You’ll be advised to wait as long as you can to have that THR. They want you to wait until you’re at least 55 before you have the THR. You may be unable to work and struggling with a lot of pain well before it’s time to have that THR.

If you’re struggling with avascular necrosis of your femoral head or any other bone and cannot work, contact us. We may be able to help with your Social Security disability claim. We represent Social Security claimants from Lexington to Louisburg, from Kernersville to Kenansville.

Answer: Maybe.

First, let’s talk about what vertigo is. It’s often referred to as dizziness but it’s not exactly the same thing. Vertigo is the sensation that you’re spinning around or that the world is spinning around you. It’s the sensation that you may have had as a child after being on a merry-go-round. It’s usually accompanied by nausea and may be accompanied by vomiting. It’s a Nystagmus, A Symptom of Meniere\’s Diseaseunpleasant sensation. Dizziness, at least to doctors, refers more to lightheadness, a sensation that one may fall down. That’s unpleasant too but it’s a different thing. Severe vertigo may be referred to as Meniere’s disease.

Vertigo or Meniere’s disease can be caused by a problem in the brain but it is usually related to inner ear problems.  Remember, the inner ear is what is responsible for our balance. We take balance for granted until our ability to balance is disturbed and we realize just how important it is. An inner ear infection can cause vertigo but an inner ear infection goes away. The sort of chronic vertigo, usually called Meniere’s disease, that can cause disability, doesn’t go away for long. It is episodic, that is, something that comes and goes. When an attack happens, the person feels miserable. Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done about severe chronic vertigo.

Meniere’s disease, that is chronic vertigo, is usually associated with at least mild hearing loss and may be associated with a history of loud noise exposure. The test for this problem is an electronystagmogram or ENG. Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialists do ENG testing. Not every ENT does ENG testing. It’s possible that you will have to go to a medical school to get the testing.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we represent Social Security claimants who suffer from vertigo. We represent clients from Asheboro to Wilson, from Eden to Edenton, from Roxboro to Conetoe.

Don't Blame Yourself If You Can't Do This

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for an amputation?

Answer: Maybe. It all depends upon what kind of amputation, why the amputation was done, what problems you may have as a result of the amputation and how old your are.

The first factor is what kind of amputation. Obviously, an amputation of your little finger isn’t as big a deal as an above knee amputation of your leg. The amputation of your arm may not be as strong a factor in proving disability as you might think. Social Security believes that there are a lot of jobs that can be done by a one-armed person. I think that’s the case when you’re talking about someone who was born missing an arm or lost an arm as a child. I am not so sure that is the case if you lose an arm, particularly your dominant arm as an adult but there is only so much I can do about Social Security’s attitudes on this subject. Also, an above knee amputation is a bigger deal than a below knee amputation.  Most of the time, people adjust to below knee amputations much better than you might think. If the person doesn’t have stump problems and is healthy otherwise, life and work can go on in a fairly normal way with a below knee amputation.

The reason why the amputation was done is important for several reasons. An amputation due to the effects of diabetes is a bad sign because, no matter how well the amputation itself goes, the amputation is a sign that the diabetic’s health overall may be poor. In that sort of case, I would be looking at the client’s general health at least as much as the amputation. An amputation due to trauma is the exact opposite but it has its own problems. Traumatic amputations often leave behind stump problems and I believe that phantom limb problems are more common. By the way, phantom limb problems are not just weird. They can cause disabling pain.

The problems you might have as a result of an amputation are important. Most of the time, people can get a good fit on a leg prosthesis but not always. Sometimes people cannot get a good fit because of stump problems and recurring stump lesions. As mentioned above, some people have serious phantom limb problems.

Age always makes a big difference at Social Security. Being over 50 helps. Being over 55 helps a lot.

We’d love to talk with you about your Social Security disability case. From Durham to Wilson, from Henderson to Morehead City, we help North Carolina residents with Social Security problems.

Stay Away From This Guy!

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for a gunshot wound?

Answer: Yes, if the damage done  by the gunshot wound is severe enough and lasts long enough.

Most people who suffer a gunshot wound recover in a few weeks with little or no long term consequences. Those folks will not get on Social Security disability benefits as a result of their gunshot wound. To get Social Security disability benefits you must have been or be predicted to be disabled for at least a year. It is not easy to get on Social Security disability benefits so permanent impairment as a result of a gunshot wound must be rather severe for a person to qualify for benefits.

I would not encourage a person to file a Social Security disability claim as a result of a gunshot wound unless the damage done appears to be severe and long-lasting. If that describes your case, then file your Social Security disability claim as soon as practical since it can take so long to be approved.

We help people with Social Security problems. We represent Social Security claimants in NC, all the way from Burlington to Kinston and from Henderson to Southern Pines. Contact us; we’d be happy to talk with you about your case whether your disability is due to a gunshot wound or something else altogether different.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for psoriasis?

Answer: If it’s bad enough, you can get Social Security disability for psoriasis. The key question in psoriasis cases is the extent of the lesions. How much of your body do they cover? Do you have involvement with the soles of your feet to the point that you have trouble standing and walking? Do you have lesions on your hands that interfere with your ability to use your hands.

Also important, is whether you have psoriatic arthritis. It can be a severe problem even if the skin lesions are under control.

It is crucial that you be under medical care for your psoriasis. Claimants who are not under treatment seldom win their Social Security disability claims.

While most people would be surprised to hear this, I have usually found that someone who says that he or she is disabled by a skin problem, usually is disabled. It’s just not the sort of health problem that people try to exaggerate, much less fake.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we represent claimants who are disabled by psoriasis and other skin conditions. We represent clients over a wide area of North Carolina. Whether you are in Yadkinville or Wilson, Pinehurst or Williamston, we would be happy to talk with you about your Social Security disability case.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for coronary artery disease?

Answer: Yes, if it is bad enough.

The heart pumps blood but it needs its own blood supply. That comes from arteries running through and over the heart muscle. These arteries can get clogged up with arteriosclerotic deposits — basically fat that sort of calcifies. As they get clogged up, the blood can’t flow as well. The heart muscle cannot get enough blood. The person with coronary artery disease suffers angina pectoris (which is just Latin for chest pain). Typically, a person with angina has crushing chest pain with shortness of breath, brought on by exertion and relieved by rest and nitroglycerine. Angina stops a person in their tracks. Angina will stop a person from doing exertion. As the angina worsens, the person can do less and less without getting angina. I should say that I am describing classic angina here. There are many variations. Things are sometimes different in women and often very different in people with diabetes.

Doctors treat angina with medications that open up the arteries, with stents which hold open particularly clogged areas and with coronary artery bypass graft (CABG — what doctors call a “cabbage”)  surgery. These work quite well for most people but not all.

If you have coronary artery disease that is not responding to treatment, contact us about a Social Security disability claim. We’ll be happy to evaluate your case, whether you’re in Ahoskie or Raleigh; High Point or Clinton.

A fatty liver at the microscopic level. I think the white areas are the fat.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for a fatty liver?

Answer: Probably not if that is all that is wrong with you but there’s probably more.

The two most common causes of a fatty liver are diabetes and alcoholism.

Alcoholism casts a dark shadow over any Social Security disability claim. You are not supposed to be denied simply because you are an alcoholic. If you have health problems that cannot be resolved by stopping drinking, those are supposed to be considered. Fortunately, if your fatty liver is caused by alcoholism, stopping drinking will probably allow your liver to heal. If your liver has gone past the point that stopping drinking will solve the problem, you may be approved for Social Security disability but if your liver is that far gone, you’re almost certain to have some liver diagnosis that goes beyond “fatty liver.” Also, if you have a fatty liver caused by alcoholism, you probably have other health problems.

With a fatty liver caused by diabetes, you do not have a dark cloud hanging over your Social Security disability claim. However, in general, a diagnosis of fatty liver isn’t likely to get you far, in and of itself. If your liver is bad enough that you are likely to be approved for Social Security disability, you will probably have a liver biopsy and  be diagnosed with something more severe than just “fatty liver.” However, if diabetes has caused you to have a fatty liver, the diabetes has probably done other damage to your body. Putting it all together, you may be found disabled.

Contact us for help with your Social Security disability case, whether the cause of your disability is fatty liver or something else. We help Social Security disability claimants from Winston-Salem to Elizabeth City, from Henderson to Lumberton and a lot of places in between.

Social Security's Regions For PASS And Everything Else

Answer: I wish I could say that it makes no difference where you live but the truth is that there can be geographic differences at Social Security.

Let’s start out looking at the initial and reconsideration levels  and their regional differences.  North Carolina is in Social Security’s Atlanta region. Social Security’s Atlanta Region has somewhat lower allowance rates than other regions other than the Dallas Region. Before you jump to the conclusion that things are just worse in the South, consider that there are just a lot more claims filed in the South. Demographics have something to do with it but some important disability decisions are made at the regional level and these decisions can influence many cases.

At the state level, the differences between the states within a region are not that great but there are some. North Carolina does not stand out as either a high or low allowance state within the Atlanta Region. Demographics probably explain whatever differences there are. North Carolina is just a different state in many ways than Florida, for instance.

You would not find any significant differences within North Carolina at the initial and reconsideration levels.

When we talk about cases at the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) level, we see significant differences between hearing offices. These differences have mostly to do with chance. Some offices happen to have more ALJs that approve a lot of claims and others have more ALJs who deny a lot of claims. Your case can be assigned to an office that approves a lot of appeals but you may get assigned to an ALJ who denies a lot of claims — or vice versa.

There are four ALJ offices in North Carolina. The Raleigh office covers cities such as Raleigh, Durham, Smithfield, Goldsboro, Rocky Mount, Wilson, Greenville and Roanoke Rapids. The Raleigh office, on the whole is moderately conservative. The Fayetteville office covers cities such as  Fayetteville, Sanford, Lumberton and Clinton. It is also moderately conservative. The Greensboro office covers cities such as Greensboro, Burlington, Winston-Salem, High Point and Lexington. It is more middle of the road. I am just not familiar enough with the Charlotte office to tell you much about how claimants are faring there at the moment. Also, some areas of North Carolina are covered by offices in Charleston, SC and Greenville, SC. Again, I am not familiar enough with those offices at this point to tell you much about them.

Here are a few tips for people filing Social Security disability claims:

• Don’t delay filing your claim! That’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make.
• Don’t get discouraged if you get turned down. File an appeal.
• Hire an attorney. Dealing with Social Security isn’t easy even when you’re healthy. When you’re sick, it’s really tough.
• Don’t worry too much about how you fill out the paperwork at Social Security. This isn’t a test where you’re going to be graded on neatness and completeness. Don’t put down anything that you know is wrong. People who get too hung up on being overly precise about completing the forms never get the forms filed. Social Security doesn’t expect perfection.
• Ask yourself whether you have significant psychiatric problems. Better yet, ask your spouse or someone else close to you. If you do have significant psychiatric problems, get over your pride and get treatment. Remember, if you have psychiatric problems, those who know you already it. You can’t hide this sort of thing. Getting treatment isn’t going to change how other people see you, except that there is a good chance that you’ll get better.
• It can take quite some time to get approved for Social Security disability. Make use of whatever resources you can to survive. Get on Food Stamps. Apply for Medicaid. If appropriate, apply for Work First, Don’t worry about the work seeking requirement in Work First. That doesn’t apply if you are disabled. And stay close to your family and friends. You may have to call upon them for help.

If you have a Social Security disability claim, be careful not to post something online that would cast an unfavorable light on your Social Security disability claim.

On the whole, if you have a Social Security disability claim and  feel that you need to worry about what you post online or how you walk in the parking lot outside a Social Security hearing office, I would appreciate it if you took your business somewhere other than my law firm. The vast majority of people filing claims for Social Security disability benefits are honest people. There are a few phonies. I am not interested in representing them. I don’t think that many of them win anyway.

Question: How long do I have to wait before I file my Social Security disability claim?

Answer: Not one day. You can file the same day you stop work. It can take two years or more to be approved for Social Security. Yes, that’s discouraging but every day you delay filing your claim is one more day that your case will take.

Delaying doesn’t help your case in any way. Delaying doesn’t make the wait shorter — it makes it longer. Delaying doesn’t help your chances of winning — it may take away some of your appeal options. Delaying doesn’t mean you’ll get more money if you’re approved. Once you wait over 17 months for disability insurance benefits you’re losing a month of benefits for each month you wait. For SSI, you’re losing a month for every month you wait and, basically,  the losses start almost immediately after you stop work.

People often wait five years and more to file a Social Security disability claim. When I ask them why, they always look a bit sheepish and say, “I thought I would get better.” Don’t let that be you! Get going now. If you do get better, you can always drop your case. It’s not a one way street. Social Security is happy for you to go back to work. In any case, be realistic. After you’ve been out of work more than a year, your chances of every going back to regular, full time work for the long haul are slim.

By the way, don’t get me wrong. We’re quite happy to work with you if you’ve waited for years to file your claim. It may still be possible to do something.

Question: Do I have to be permanently and totally disabled to get Social Security disability?

Answer: Absolutely not! Neither the word “permanent” nor the word “total” appears anywhere in the definition of disability used by Social Security. In fact, the definition says the exact opposite. You have to have been or be expected to be disabled for at least a year to get Social Security disability. A year is a lot less time than forever, which is what permanent means. “Totally disabled” is a term used in workers compensation. It really means total — as in bedridden or very close to it. You certainly have to be sick to get Social Security disability but not that sick. You have to be unable to do the work you’ve done in recent years as well as unable to do other work. In considering whether you have the ability to do work other than what you have done in the past, Social Security must consider your age, education and work experience. Social Security may not pay as much attention to your education and work experience as they should but they definitely pay attention to your age. Being over 50 helps. Being over 55 helps a lot.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we know the rules that decide whether you win or lose your Social Security disability case. We’d love to talk with you about your case.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for breast cancer?

Answer: Probably not, unless it metastasizes. If it metastasizes, you easily qualify for Social Security disability. Otherwise, you have to prove disability on the basis of the problems caused by treatment for the cancer.

With breast cancer, at best, there will be a period of time while you are disabled by the treatment for breast cancer, which can include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. However, for Social Security disability purposes, the disability has to have lasted or be predicted to last for at least a year. It is quite rare for the initial treatment for breast cancer to stretch out over more than a year.

The treatment for breast cancer can itself cause permanent disability. The surgery may disrupt lymph flow and cause severe swelling. Radiation therapy can cause neurologic damage. The whole process of having cancer and being treated for it can cause lasting psychiatric problems. Your doctors will try to minimize these problems. Usually, they are quite successful in bringing a woman through brease cancer without significant disabling problems.

If you feel that breast cancer or the treatment you have had for breast cancer is disabling you, we’d be happy to take a look at your case. Contact us today.

Question:

Answer: Maybe, but it will have to be very bad. I am sorry to have to say that Social Security’s criteria for evaluating hearing loss are extremely stiff. I have had hearings over the years where I and the judge hearing the case both had to yell at my client so that he or she could understand. I can recall being asked by someone in an adjoining office why I was yelling at my client. I was yelling but not because I was mad. I was just trying to be heard!

Don’t get too discouraged. Some of these cases involved claimants who refused to wear their hearing aids. I can’t get very far with a hearing loss case if you refuse to wear a hearing aid that would help you. Also, many people who have suffered a severe hearing loss are older and have other health problems. Add some arthritis and some diabetes to the hearing loss, for instance, and you may have a good case. In many cases, perhaps most, people who are approved for Social Security disability have multiple health problems.

Contact us. We’ll be happy to evaluate your case. We’ll yell at you if we have to.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for varicose veins?

Answer: Very possibly. It depends upon the severity of your varicose veins, your age and any other health problems you may have.

There are many people with mild varicose veins who could not possibly get on Social Security disability because of their varicosities. There are other people with severe varicose veins tha severe swelling,  skin changes and skin ulcers. Those folks stand a good chance of winning. Of course, there are others who are in between. Their varicose veins cause them pain and swelling. They have a hard time standing for long. They need to elevate their legs. In these cases, a lot depends upon the claimant’s age. Being over 50 helps a lot.

Other health problems matter a lot too. Diabetes and varicose veins are a bad combination for the patient. Where those two are combined, a person’s health will suffer and the chances of being approved for Social Security disability go up. Other problem which do not interact with the varicosities can make a case stronger, such as mental illness.

If you cannot work and have varicose veins, we’d be happy to talk with you. Contact us today.

A Bad Cataract -- But Usually Quite Fixable

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for cataracts?

Answer: Probably not for the cataracts themselves since it is almost always possible to surgically remove the cataracts. However, when a person under full retirement age, which is currently 66, has cataracts the first question is why the person is getting cataracts. For many younger people with cataracts, the answer is bad luck. The cataracts are simply “senile” cataracts of the sort that almost everyone gets when they get older. The person just happened to get “senile” cataracts at a younger age than most people. For some people, though, the cataracts are associated with some other eye condition such as damage from diabetes, infection an eye injury or exposure to some medicines.

If the cataracts are associated with some other eye condition, particularly if they are associated with diabetes, it may not be that easy for the eye doctor  to restore vision.

If you have visual problems, regardless of the causes, the primary factors in causing disability are loss of visual acuity and loss of visual fields. Acuity is the sharpness of vision. 20/20 vision means that an object 20 feet away looks like it should to a person with normal vision. 20/100 vision means that the object looks like it would to a normal sighted person if it were 100 feet away. Visual field refers to how far out to the side and above and below the person can see. A person with severe visual field loss has tunnel vision because they can only see straight ahead. Visual field are expressed in angles. An visual field angle limited to, say 20 degrees, is bad.

Question:

Answer: Yes, you really do have to go to the medical exam. They can and will turn you down for refusing to cooperate if you don’t go.

The medical exam itself shouldn’t be anything unpleasant. There are a very few of these doctors who do a hatchet job but we can help you avoid them.   We know who the bad doctors are. We can ask Social Security to reschedule your exam with a different doctor. This sort of local knowledge is important. We have it. Attorneys and others representing Social Security claimants who are based out of state don’t have that sort of knowledge. Pay attention to that when you are choosing someone to represent you.

On the whole, I think the medical exams that Social Security sends people to are more likely to help your case than hurt it. Mostly, though, the exams are barely worth what Social Security pays for them. They don’t tell Social Security much.

By the way, if you would like to read what one of the doctors who does these exams thinks, take a look at Tell Me Where It Hurts by Heather Kovich.

Give us a call or contact us through this website. We’d love to take a look at your case to see if we think we can help you.

I don’t really understand why there is real evidence that African-Americans have a harder time being approved for Social Security disability. The vast majority of the time that a Social Security employee deals with a disability claim, they are dealing only with a paper record which does not emphasize the claimant’s race. However, medical records usually mention a patient’s race for completely valid reasons. Doctors can’t be color-blind since there are racial differences that affect medical care in significant ways. For example, diuretics (water pills) often do a good job of controlling blood pressure in persons of African descent but don’t seem to work as well with people of European descent. Since diuretics are inexpensive, they’re usually a sensible starting point in blood pressure control for African-Americans while doctors usually start with more expensive medications for European-Americans. Why would the casual mention of a claimant’s race in medical records make a difference in the outcome of a Social Security disability claim? I don’t know but it seems to. I wish that the differences could be attributed to factors such as differences in access to health care, for instance, but the differences seem to go beyond that. The differences aren’t huge. The reason why you are approved or denied probably isn’t your race but sometimes race seems to creep in.

I find this embarrassing as an American but there it is.

Question: How long do I have to file a Social Security appeal?

Answer: As a general matter, you have 60 days to file a Social Security appeal. That is how long you have to request reconsideration, request a hearing and request Appeals Council review. That’s also how long you have to file a civil action in United States District Court to appeal from a final Social Security decision.

The 60 days runs from the date you receive the decision you are appealing from. It is assumed that you receive the decision 5 days after it is issued. If you can show that you did not receive it until later, then you have more time.

You can get around the 60 day time limit if you can show good cause for the late appeal. An example of good cause would be that you received the decision while you were hospitalized and you remained quite ill for a lengthy period of time even after you got out of the hospital.

If Social Security is cutting off your disability benefits due to medical improvement, while you have 60 days to file your appeal, you have only 10 days to request that your benefits continue while you appeal.

It is important to remember that you don’t have to wait until the last minute to file your appeals. I try to file them as quickly as possible. There is already too much delay at Social Security. There is no reason to add to that delay by waiting to file an appeal.

If you are looking for a Raleigh Social Security attorney, the Charles T. Hall Law Firm can help. We are the largest Social Security law firm, not just in Raleigh but in the entire state of North Carolina.

We have gotten large by offering quality service to our clients. We meet with our clients in person. The dirty secret of many Social Security law firms is that they try to avoid meeting their clients until the day of their Social Security disability hearing. We advise our clients. We don’t just accept the case as you envision it or as Social Security envisions it. We try to see what is actually there. This may mean telling you to do something you don’t really want to do such as getting in psychiatric care or making the effort to get to a free clinic.  We develop their medical evidence. We don’t just tell you to go get your medical records. We do it. Occasionally, we may ask for your help but we know that getting those medical records is out job. That’s what we get paid to do. We shouldn’t try to throw off that responsibility to you.  We help them every step of the way. If you call us during normal business hours, your call will normally be answered by a real person. If the attorney or legal assistant you need to speak with isn’t available, that person will return your call. I cannot guarantee that you will always get your call returned immediately. Employees have vacations and get sick. However, if you are having a problem getting your call returned, ask to speak with me. I’ll take your call or return your call as soon as I can.

Shingles -- Post-herpetic neuralgia comes after the outward signs of shingles are over

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for post-herpetic neuralgia?

Answer: Yes, if it is causing severe pain and has lasted or is expected to last for a year or more.

First, for those reading this who aren’t familiar with the term “post-herpetic neuralgia” let me explain that I am talking about long lasting pain tha can follow the disease known as shingles. I think most people know that shingles, in and of itself, is quite painful and unpleasant. Fortunately, shingles eventually goes away. Since shingles itself is unlikely to last for a year or more, shingles isn’t likely to get a person on Social Security disability. It won’t meet the one year duration requirement.

An unfortunate few people who get shingles get the “post-herpetic neuralgia.” Let me explain that name. Shingles is officially herpes zoster. There are several varieties of herpes. Herpes zoster is chickenpox. The disease you had as a child or maybe the disease you didn’t have because you were vaccinated. The problem with herpes zoster is that once you get it, it never fully leaves your body. You’re not sick but it can come back in later life. When it comes back, it’s shingles and very painful. Once the shingles is over and you’re “post-herpetic” the pain can linger, perhaps for the rest of your life. It’s a nerve pain, something that a doctor calls a neuralgia, in this case a “post-herpetic neuralgia.”

The problems with proving disability due to post-herpetic neuralgia are the questions of how long the pain will last and how bad the pain is. Usually by the time we get to a hearing on one of these cases, we’re well past the one year mark so duration is not a problem. Pain cannot be measured so it is always a problem to prove. At least, everyone acknowledges that post-herpetic neuralgia is a very real problem and usually quite painful, so these cases are usually quite sympathetic.

Question: Will my Social Security disability benefits stop if I move to another state?

Answer: No. Social Security is a federal program. It does not matter what state you live in. In fact, if you are on Supplemental Security Income (SSI) your benefits might go up if you move to another state. Some states such as California, but not North Carolina, supplement the federal SSI benefits. All you have to do to get the supplement is to move.

SSI benefits, however, do end if you move to Puerto Rico or to a foreign country. Other types of Social Security benefits normally continue even if you move to a foreign country.

If you are pursuing a Social Security disability claim, we normally can’t help you if you live outside of North Carolina but we may be able to help you get to a lawyer in the other state. If you have already been approved and we represented you, we’ll certainly help you as best we can with any issues involved in a move — and, yes, sometimes our clients move outside the country.

I often get a call from a client who wants to drop their Social Security disability case because they feel they have to go back to work. They are about to lose everything so they have to go back to work. I gently try to talk them down.

First, you don’t have to drop your Social Security disability claim to try to go back to work. You can continue on with your Social Security disability claim. As long as you don’t fib to Social Security about going back to work, you’re not going to get into trouble. Yes, going back to work can have an impact on your Social Security disability claim. It may even kill it depending upon how long you’re out of work before going back to work and how long you last once you go back but it probably won’t. We can deal with the consequences.

Second, most people who go back to work after filing a Social Security disability claim aren’t able to last long enough when they go back to work to ever cause a problem with the Social Security disability case. A short period of time back at work that ends because of your illness is called an Unsuccessful Work Attempt (UWA) and doesn’t hurt your case. If anything, it may make you look better because it shows just how much you wanted to return to work. There were strong reasons why you left work in the first place. Unless you’ve gotten better, you’re probably going to have major problems when you go back to work.

Question: Is Social Security going to be around for me?

Answer: Yes, Social Security is going to be around for you.

People think that someone like myself who would be out of a job if Social Security stopped must worry about whether Social Security will be around in the future. Actually, no, I don’t worry about this. The people who work at Social Security don’t worry about it either, as best I can tell. The reason we don’t worry about the future of Social Security is that we know just how important Social Security is to the country. About one person in six in this country, man, woman and child, draws Social Security. We live in a democracy, perhaps an imperfect democracy, but a democracy nevertheless. The 60 million plus Americans who draw Social Security as well as the tens of millions others who expect to draw Social Security in the future are not going to let it go away

What those of us who are professions in Social Security worry about is the state of the Social Security Administration itself. Will the agency be given sufficient operating funds so that it can adequately discharge its responsibilities? Actually, the answer to that question is already “No” because Social Security does not have adequate operating funds. This causes backlogs and mistakes throughout the agency. Unfortunately, the problems are going to get worse before they get better. However, these problems do not mean that Social Security is going to go away. It just means that the agency that administers Social Security has to muddle through and that a lot of people, most of them disabled, will receive poor service.

Trigeminal neuropathic pain is pain that occurs in the face. Some refer to this condition as Tic Douloureux. The pain often occurs over the eye, through the cheek, and into the mouth and jaw. This is a condition that can be difficult to deal with, as it occurs when it wants to occur; so the status of daily activities can be unpredictable and hard to manage.

Trigeminal neuralgia is a type of severe, intermittent facial pain which has often been described as one of the most painful syndromes known to mankind.The pain is usually brief, sharp and stabbing, and can often be triggered by touch, chewing or even a light breeze. Patients may have long pain-free periods followed by severe bouts of recurrent pain which are unpredictable.

Trigeminal neuralgia is thought to be due to loss of the insulation (myelin) around the nerve fibers in the trigeminal nerve, which supplies sensation to the face. This loss of insulation, also called demyelination, causes a “short circuit’ in the nerve, producing abnormal nerve impulses which are perceived by the brain as pain. In many cases, demyelination is caused by compression of the nerve by a blood vessel, near where it exits the brain.

via Trigeminal Neuralgia and Facial Pain – Stanford Hospital & Clinics – Stanford Medicine.

The Mayo Clinic says “Trigeminal neuralgia treatment usually starts with medications, and many people require no additional treatment. However, over time, some people with the disorder eventually stop responding to medications, or they experience unpleasant side effects.”

If you suffer from trigeminal neuropathic pain as many of our clients do, know that if you cannot work, there may be another option to pay your bills through Social Security disability benefits.  Our lawyers are here to help all of those in need of securing their benefits. If you need help and are ready to start the process, don’t delay. Be sure to call us today if you can no longer work and suffer from trigeminal neuropathic pain.

Question:

Answer: Not while they are alive but there are many types of benefits that might help you.

You can probably  draw benefits on the account of your husband or wife if they are on Social Security benefits and you are 62 or older and not working. You don’t have to be disabled to get that. You can draw disabled widows or widowers benefits if you are age 50-66 and become disabled within 7 years after your husband’s or wife’s death or the last time you drew mother’s or father’s benefits. You can draw those mothers or fathers benefits if your spouse is deceased or on Social Security disability and you are not working and have either a child of that spouse under your care and that child is either under age 16 or disabled. Again, you don’t have to be disabled to get that.

If this all sounds a bit complicated, it is. Contact us. We’ll be happy to see what we can do for you.

Question: Can you help me with a non-disability Social Security problem?

Answer: Sure, we would be happy to take a look at your non-disability Social Security problem, the type of case that usually involves Social Security retirement and survivor benefits.

Here are some types of non-disability Social Security cases that we get contacted about:

• Overpayments. We may be able to help you get them waived. We do have to charge upfront on these cases since there are no back benefits involved.
• Federal pension offsets. We probably can’t help you. You need to talk with your Congressperson.
• Paternity cases. Need to prove that a man who has died was the father of your child? We may be able to help.
• You say you’re disabled but Social Security says you’re still working. We may be able to help.
• Social Security won’t pay you because they say you’re younger than you know yourself to be. We may be able to help get the foreign records (and this is normally a problem only for people born outside the U.S.
• Your husband or wife disappeared and Social Security won’t accept that they’re dead. We may be able to help.
• Social Security won’t accept that you had a common law marriage to a person who is now deceased. We may be able to help
• Your husband or wife died less than 9 months after you got married and Social Security won’t accept that the death was unexpected. We may be able to help

Question: I’m so mad. Can I sue Social Security?

Answer: We sue Social Security all the time since we’re pretty familiar with suing them. We don’t have any hesitancy about doing it when it’s called for. But you can’t sue some person or organization just because you’re mad at them. Your complaint against that person or organization has to fall into some category of lawsuit that the courts are willing to recognize or you just don’t get anywhere. When you’re talking about Social Security, your case has to fit some pretty specific criteria. If your case doesn’t fit into those criteria, it gets thrown out quickly. No attorney would want to waste time with your case if it didn’t have some chance of success.

When you’re a claimant for Social Security benefits and you are unhappy with what Social Security has done with your case, you have to meet a basic requirement. Social Security must have made a “final” decision. If you still have appeal rights within Social Security, you can’t sue Social Security in federal court. You can’t sue just because Social Security has turned you down once or twice. You must have been turned down by a Social Security Administrative Law Judge and by Social Security’s Appeals Council. You may be three years into your case before this happens.

In theory, you can sue Social Security because they are so slow but it’s hard to win on this sort of case. The delay has to be a lot more shocking than you might imagine.

We’ll be happy to talk with you about suing Social Security but we will probably have to do some other things to try to get you on benefits before we can sue them — no matter how mad they’ve made you.

Answer: Yes, it is possible. It all depends upon the severity of the problem.

If you have any sort of vocal cord or speech problem of any sort that completely prevents you from speaking in an understandable way, you should certainly qualify for benefits.

If you have a speech problem that makes it difficult for you to be understood or which makes it painful and difficult for you to speak, you may qualify for disability benefits. Like almost everything else, it all depends upon the severity of the problem. Your age, education and work experience matter also as would any other health problems that you may have.

I have represented clients who got on Social Security disability for focal dysphonia and spasmodic dysphonia. I have also had a number of clients who had had laryngectomies due to cancer or whose vocal cords had been badly damaged by surgery for other throat cancer. Many people do work despite this sort of history so a victory is not automatic but these cases are usually received sympathetically by Social Security’s Administrative Law Judges.

The bottom line is that if your vocal problems are keeping you from working, you should certainly file a claim for Social Security disability. We’ll be happy to — I won’t say talk with  you since you may not be able to talk with us very well — communicate with you about your case.

Question: Can you get Social Security disability for somatoform disorder?

Answer: Yes, but it’s not easy.

Social Security certainly accepts that somatoform disorder can be disabling. Unfortunately, somatoform disorder is badly underdiagnosed by psychiatrists. It is not unusual for a psychiatrist to see a patient who has serious physical health problems. Being physically sick is mentally stressful. Many people who are trying to cope with chronic illness end up seeing a psychiatrist because they become so anxious and depressed. Psychiatrists generally take at face value what their patients tell them about their physical health. Thus, the psychiatrist will not realize that their patient’s physical symptoms do not have a physical basis. And, of course, that’s if the patient ever gets to a psychiatrist in the first place. Many, perhaps most, people with somatization disorder, avoid going to a psychiatrist in the first place. They are highly resistant to a psychiatric explanation for their symptoms. They become indignant when a physician suggests the possibility. I have had a number of clients over the years who were diagnosed with somatization disorder. I don’t recall a one of them that accepted the diagnosis. They might acknowledge that they had psychiatric problems but it was always because of the severity of their physical health problems.

Question:

Answer: Not necessarily but I may make it easier.

Social Security’s official position is that it carefully considers your doctor’s opinion. Their real position, which they are not all that careful about hiding, is that they don’t care in the least what your doctor thinks. The reality on the ground is a lot more complicated. Your doctor’s opinion does matter. A favorable opinion doesn’t guarantee a victory but it helps. An unfavorable opinion isn’t necessarily the end for your disability claim.

You need to understand that many times what a claimant thinks is a favorable opinion may be the exact opposite. Consider, for example, a letter saying ” Mr. X is permanently and totally disabled from his prior work as a carpenter. He is limited to standing no more than four hours a day and can lift no more than 20 pounds.” Sound good, doesn’t it? If Mr. X is 38 years of age, that letter hurts the case badly. At 38 years of age, it is not enough merely to be unable to do the kind of work you have done in the past. You have to be able to do different kinds of work. The letter says that Mr. X can do other work.

The bottom line is that it’s a lot harder to tell who will win and who will lose their Social Security disability claim. One factor, such as a letter from a doctor, generally doesn’t decide the case. It’s more complicated, which is why you need an attorney.

Non-attorneys are allowed to represent Social Security claimants. Basically, there are no minimum standards. You too might represent Social Security claimants!

I often encounter a former client of one of these non-attorneys who did not realize that the person representing them had not been an attorney. They seem annoyed to find out that the person who had been representing them was not an attorney. Of course, the fact that the person is seeing me tells you that things probably didn’t go that well when the non-attorney was representing the person.

Why would someone go to a non-attorney? Beats me. The fee will be the same if you win. Wouldn’t you want someone representing you who went to four years or college followed by four years of law school and then studied to take and pass the bar exam instead of, how shall I put it, a question mark?

It’s your choice. It’s your case. If you’re looking at websites, look to see the words “attorney” and “lawyer” and “law firm.” If you don’t see at least one of these words, keep looking, because you’re wont’ be represented by a lawyer. Don’t hire people who label themselves as Social Security “advocates” or “representatives.” Anyone can call themselves an advocate or representative. Don’t get fooled by a business name such as “Smith & Smith.” Anyone can put an ampersand between two names. That doesn’t make it a law firm.

You can’t get Social Security disability for the metabolic syndrome itself. In and of itself, the metabolic syndrome causes no symptoms. Cardiovascular disease brought on by the metabolic syndrome can certainly cause diabetes. The individual components of the metabolic syndrome, particularly diabetes can, in and of themselves, cause enough symptoms to be disabling. Diabetes can also lead to non-cardiovascular damage to the body, such as peripheral neuropathy, kidney damage, stomach damage, eye damage, etc, which may be disabling.

If you have the metabolic syndrome, take care of yourself. Keep working as long as you reasonably can. If your health gets to the point that you can’t work, file a Social Security disability claim and pursue it aggressively.

We’re here to help. Contact us.

Crack cocaine usage can have a dramatic effect upon a Social Security disability claim. It can turn what would otherwise be a good Social Security disability claim into one that will lose.

The rule is that you cannot get Social Security disability benefits because of a substance abuse disorder such as crack addiction. You can, however, be approved for Social Security disability benefits even if you are a crack addict if your other health problems are disabling without consideration of the drug abuse or alcoholism.

In practice, it is difficult to separate out how much of a person’s health problems are due to substance abuse. This is especially the case when the other health problem is psychiatric and that is usually the case. There is a high degree of correlation between substance abuse and bipolar disorder. Social Security does not question that bipolar disorder can be disabling but how do you tell how bad a person’s bipolar disorder is if they are regularly using crack cocaine?

If you are a crack addict who has filed or wants to file a Social Security disability claim, get off crack! Get in detox. Don’t know where to go for detox? Show up at the nearest emergency room and tell them you want to get in detox to get off crack. They’ll help you. Get in Narcotics Anonymous (NA). Stay clean. Do that and we may have a reasonable chance of winning your case. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that Social Security won’t know you’re using. Social Security will have your medical records. Your crack problem will be all over your medical records.

Answer: At the moment, in North Carolina, about one to two months in most cases.

Notice that I said “in North Carolina”, that I said  “at the moment” and that I said that this applies to  “most cases.”

There are significant variations within North Carolina. There are huge variations around the country.

These things change over time. If you had asked me a couple of years ago, I might have said something different. Ask me in another couple of years from now and there’s no telling what I”ll say since conditions are likely to be different then.

I say “most cases” because there’s at least a couple of things that could make it take a lot longer. First, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) could have trouble making up his or her mind. That happens only rarely but it does happen. I’ve seen an ALJ sit on a case for more than six months. In fact, I’ve seen that recently. Second, the ALJ or your attorney could decide to do some “post-hearing development.” Maybe all the medical evidence hasn’t arrived at my office by the day of the hearing. We don’t put it off. We just ask for time after the hearing to submit the new medical evidence. That new medical evidence could arrive almost immediately or it could take many weeks. We keep prodding the medical sources to get on the ball but some of them delay terribly. Second, the ALJ could decide to request a medical exam at Social Security’s expense. That can take two or three months.

It’s important to have an attorney who has his or her finger on the pulse of your local Social Security hearing offices. That’s what we try to do.

Question: What should I wear to my Social Security disability hearing?

Answer: Wear what you might ordinarily wear to go to the grocery store. Mostly, it’s about what not to wear.  Don’t dress up!

I’m not interested in having you look any healthier or wealthier than you are. Don’t take this to an extreme by deliberately wearing shabby clothes that you wouldn’t ordinarily wear but, please, no ties on the guys and nothing fancy on the ladies.

Also, avoid jewelry. Avoid makeup. No fingernail polish. Cover tattoes to the extent practcal. Wear bedroom slippers only if you have to because your feet are so swollen you can’t get anything else on them.

Don’t wear medical braces that you wouldn’t ordinarily wear. Don’t wear medical braces outside your clothing if you wouldn’t do that normally. Don’t come in using a cane or crutches or a wheelchair unless you ordinarily use them when outside the house. Administrative Law Judges don’t like fakery. If they don’t see any indication of this sort of thing in your medical records, they’re going to be suspicious. You can kill a perfectly good case with this sort of thing. Don’t gild the lily.

If you’re my client and you don’t listen to me on this, don’t blame me for a denial!

Answer: Very possibly. You need to be careful.

There are two types of Social Security disability benefits that are most involved, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB). SSI is a needs based program. Any income you receive and any money you have in the bank can affect your benefits. A workers compensation or personal injury settlement can affect your SSI benefits in the same way as any other income or resources. If you are on SSI or hope to soon be on SSI and you’re about the receive a personal injury or workers compensation settlement, don’t give away the money. You can contact us for help. There are ways of handling this situation that will make sure that you get the benefit of that settlement while maximizing your SSI. It does not matter for DIB purposes if you settle a personal injury case. It does not matter if you are a millionaire. However, it does matter if you settle a workers compensation case since there is an offset in DIB for workers compensation benefits. Make sure that you have an attorney, that the attorney knows that you have filed for DIB or intend to do so. It greatly affects how the settlement is drafted. If your attorney is unfamiliar with drafting a workers compensation settlement to protect your Social Security disability benefits (and that is unlikely) don’t walk, run to another attorney who is familiar.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for traumatic brain injury?

Answer: Yes, it is certainly possible to get Social Security disability for traumatic brain injury (TBI), also known as organic brain syndrome (OBS) or organicity or closed head injury, etc. However, it all depends upon the severity of the head injury.

Traumatic brain injury can range from mild to severe. The problem is proving how severe your traumatic brain injury is. Generally, neurosurgeons and neurologist and trauma specialists are not concerned with documenting just how severe a traumatic brain injury is. What they do to treat the traumatic brain injury even in the acute phase is much the same whether it is mild or severe. Once the patient is past the acute phase of their traumatic brain injury, the physician has no way of treating the traumatic brain injury itself. The patient may be referred to physical or occupational therapy or to speech therapy but there is no accepted treatment for the memory loss or personality change issues. However, the memory loss or personality changes caused by traumatic brain injury are often what disables the patient and physicians usually do not bother with testing to determine their severity since there is no way of treating the problem.

It is possible to get testing for the memory loss and personality changes associated with some traumatic brain injuries. It is called neuropsychological testing. If you or a relative or friend has suffered a traumatic brain injury that may be disabling, please get neuropsychological testing while you still have insurance since neuropsychological testing is expensive. It can be very helpful in proving disability.

Finally, please be very careful while riding a motorcycle. Even with a helmet, it is way too easy to get traumatic brain injury while riding a motorcycle. Without a helmet, traumatic brain injury is even more likely but death is far more likely still.

I don’t blame anyone for wanting to get on Social Security disability now. I don’t blame anyone who is frustrated with me or some other attorney who can’t get them the help they need right now. Unfortunately, it does not matter how urgent your need is. Social Security is likely to take its own sweet time no matter how inconvenient that is for you or your attorney.

I try hard to make sure my clients know how long things are going to take. Unfortunately, people often hear what they want to hear and want to blame me or some other attorney for things that are beyond our control.

We get a fair number of calls from Social Security disability claimants who are mad at other attorneys because of how long their Social Security disability claims are taking. I’m sure other attorneys get calls from my clients about the same thing. Generally, I and other Social Security attorneys suggest you stay put with your attorney. If the problem is delay and you switch from another attorney to me, it probably won’t be long before you’re mad at me too.

Don’t just fire your attorney because of how long things are taking. You may find it hard to find a new attorney. I may not be quite as eager to take your case if you’ve already demonstrated that you want to blame an attorney for things that are beyond the attorney’s control.

An extreme example of what Ehlers-Danlos does

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome?

Answer: Quite possibly. It all depends upon how badly you are affected by Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a genetic disorder that, among other things, can cause unusual elasticity of the skin, muscles, ligaments, blood vessels and internal organs.

The most common variety of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (which actually comes in several different types) causes problems with the joints. The ligaments are so elastic that the person with Ehlers-Danlos has repeated dislocations of the shoulders, hips, knees, etc. In addition to being painful, this causes permanent damage to these joints. The patient has to have repeated surgeries to tighten up the ligaments.

The chances of a disability claim filed by a person with Ehlers-Danlos depends upon how badly their joints have been damaged, how much pain the person suffers, how frequently they have surgery and whether there is vascular and internal organ damage.

I have helped a number of clients over the years who had Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. It may seem like a rare disease to the patient but it’s not all that rare in my practice.

The big problem with working under the table before becoming disabled is that you don’t earn work credits that help you get Social Security disability benefits based upon your own earnings. If you worked long enough under the table, you may not be able to get disability benefits based upon your own earnings. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) may still be available. There are prices to be paid for working under the table and this is one of them.

We still have to tell Social Security about the work you did under the table before becoming disabled. Social Security wants your work history going back 15 years and that includes work under the table. I suppose that in theory you could get in legal trouble due to telling Social Security that you did work under the table but I’ve certainly never heard of any legal trouble on this account. You could certainly get in legal trouble for lying to Social Security about your work history. You are even supposed to tell Social Security about prior work that was illegal, such as drug dealing or prostitution. Really. You may not believe it but telling Social Security about this sort of thing actually enhances your credibility. They may figure that if you’re honest about something embarrassing that you’re probably honest about what’s wrong with you.

You definitely have to tell Social Security about any work under the table while your Social Security disability claim is pending. Lying about this is a criminal offense. Most of the time, the work under the table doesn’t amount to much anyway. Painting one house, a few days of construction work, mowing a few lawns, cleaning one house a week, etc., is not enough to defeat your claim. As I said above, being scrupulously honest about this sort of thing helps your case. Testimony about that job where you earned $50 can help you win your case since you’re being honest about something that you could have concealed.

There are many non-medical barriers to employment that are not disability. These do not help you win a Social Security disability claim. To be blunt, talking about these not only does not help you win your case; they make it harder to win. Here are some examples:

• I can’t work because I don’t have transportation.
• I can’t work because there’s no one to take care of my children.
• I can’t work because if I do, I’ll lose my workers compensation.
• I can’t work because I can’t find a job.
• I can’t work because I’ve been in prison and no one wants to hire an ex-con.
• I can’t work because I lost my drivers license after a DWI.
• I can’t work because my husband is beating me.
• I can’t work because my mother is sick and I need to take care of her.

Personally, I may be sympathetic to you if you have one or more of these problems but they aren’t disability. Some of my clients just refuse to believe it but talking about these problems to Social Security is a loser.

Question:

Answer: Yes, it is possible to get Social Security disability for Parkinson’s disease?

Most people who have Parkinson’s disease do not qualify for Social Security disability benefits because they are already past full retirement age. There are no Social Security disability benefits after you reach full retirement age — currently 66 — just retirement benefits.

Younger people do get Parkinson’s disease and it can certainly be severe. See Michael J. Fox. You don’t have to have as serious a problem with Parkinson’s disease as Mr. Fox to get on Social Security disability. Your ability to stand and walk and your ability to use your hands are certainly important to Social Security but Parkinson’s affects people in many different ways. Just tell us whatever it is about Parkinson’s that keeps you from working.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we work with people disabled by many different conditions. Just give us a call. We’ll be happy to evaluate your case.

You’ve finally been approved for Social Security disability. It was a long haul but you’ve arrived at your destination. Here is a checklist if you are one of my clients:

• If you haven’t already heard from me, call me right away.
• Realize the money isn’t going to arrive tomorrow. It will probably be a few weeks.
• Did you have a bank account at the time you started your claim? If so, you’re almost certainly set up for direct deposit. Is that bank account still open? If not, you really need to contact Social Security right away. Otherwise, they’re going to try to deposit that money in a closed account. It’s going to bounce back and you’ll be facing a long delay.
• If you don’t have a bank account, open one. You don’t want to keep cash around your house and you don’t want to pay a check cashing service.
• If you just can’t handle a bank account or the local banks won’t let you open an account (it happens) , talk with Social Security about getting your benefits paid to you on a debit card. You won’t have to open a real bank account.
• What did I tell you about Medicare and Medicaid? You’ve probably already forgotten what I said on the phone because you were so excited about winning. Take a look at the letter I sent you or call me. It’s important for you to realize what happens with Medicare and Medicaid.
• If you’re eligible for Medicare going back, make a decision on whether you want Medicare Part B going back. Unless you specifically ask Social Security for back Medicare Part B and pay the back premiums, you won’t get it. You have to figure out whether the amount that Medicare will pay will justify having the Medicare premiums taken out of your back benefits. If this isn’t making sense to you, you need to give me a call.
• Realize that even though you may be paid more money at one time than you’ve ever seen before that you’re not going to be wealthy. You can’t afford to waste any money. You need to think about basics: Pay off your bills, make necessary repairs to your home and car, replace worn out appliances, make sure you have adequate clothing. Don’t give away any money and don’t keep any significant amount of cash around the house.
• Call me when you get any money from Social Security. I’m not telling you this just so I can collect money from you. I want to make sure you are paid properly. Social Security often gets things fouled up. I can’t get it straightened out if I don’t know what’s going on.

Answer: Yes, but it would have to be a terribly severe latex allergy.

Latex allergies are not unusual. Unfortunately, latex is everywhere. As I sit in my office, I know it’s in the carpet under my feet, in the paint on the walls, in the finish on my desk and other furniture in my office, in the covering on the chair on which I sit and goodness knows how many other places around me. It’s certainly in the air surrounding me. At that, an office, such as mine, does not present as big a latex exposure as a medical facility. Hospitals and other medical facilities seem to be where people develop the most severe latex allergies.

Latex allergies can certainly cause severe symptoms and latex is all over the place. Still, most people with latex allergies can control their symptoms with simple steps. A hospital employee can start using latex free gloves, for instance. If that is not enough, the person can just stop working in a hospital. However, if that is still not enough and the ordinary office or industrial setting is still too polluted by latex, it is possible to get on Social Security disability for a latex allergy. It does have to be quite severe and you will need proof of this. Your allergist will need to put this in writing.

Question:

Answer: You can order it from West Publishing Company. You will notice that it’s rather expensive. It’s mainly intended for attorneys who represent Social Security claimants. Client who have looked at the book seemed to find it more interesting than I thought they would. At least that’s what they told me. Maybe they were just being polite. If you do order it, be sure to tell the publisher that you don’t want future editions. Law book publishing isn’t like other publishing. Normally, if you order a law book, the publisher just automatically sends you any new editions that come out along with a bill. That’s how law book publishers (and writers) make money.

The publisher sends me some free copies every year. If you’re my client and you ask me for a copy, I’ll give you a copy of an old edition if I have any left.

Question:

Answer: I am only going to talk about the two most important Social Security disability programs: Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). My answer may not be completely satisfactory but it’s the best I can do.

The amount you receive in DIB depends upon how much money you made when you were working. It’s not a simple formula. I wont’ even try to explain it. Social Security used to send out statements every year to people who were working. These statements showed how much a person would receive if they got on various types of Social Security, including DIB. A sample copy is pictured above. Social Security only recently stopped sending those out. You may still have a copy. Take a look at it. The amount you receive will probably be different by a few dollars but it should be pretty close. It doesn’t matter for DIB if you have income from other sources.

When it comes to SSI if you have no other income and you have no spouse and you’re not being given anything such as free room and board and you live in North Carolina, you’ll receive $674 per month, as of this writing. If you have other income or if you have a spouse with income or if you are being given things such as free room and board, you’ll get less. How much less depends upon the nature of the other income and how much of it there is

Question: Are there temporary disability benefits?

Answer: Yes, but maybe not what you have in mind. To get any Social Security disability benefits, you have to have been or be predicted to be disabled for at least a year. There aren’t many people who remain disabled for a year who then improve enough to go back to work.

The other side of the coin is that there are no permanent disability benefits at Social Security. Going on Social Security disability benefits does not have to be a one way trip. If you get on benefits, there is nothing preventing you from going back to work. In fact, there are many incentives to return to work. You’ll probably keep getting your full disability benefit for a year after returning to work. Even after that, for several years you’ll be able to get right back on disability benefits if you have to stop work again.

This also means that people who are granted Social Security disability benefits are reviewed from time to time to see if they remain disabled. However, normally they cannot  be cut off benefits unless they medically improve or return to work for a substantial period of time.

Social Security Payment Center Birmingham, AL

Answer: One to three months. Unfortunately, it seems to be getting longer.

The person at Social Security who approves your disability claim does not also compute your benefits and authorize their payment. Someone else does that.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits are computed and authorized by your local Social Security office.

Benefits based upon your own earnings or the earnings of another person, such as disabled widows benefits, are computed and authorized at one of Social Security’s payment centers. The exact payment center depends mostly upon your age and your Social Security number but you have little reason to be concerned about which payment center it will be.

Social Security does not have enough employees to get its work done. This has created backlogs all over the agency. The backlogs affect the field offices and the payment centers. At this writing, it is taking about a month to get SSI and about a month to get benefits based upon someone’s earnings. However, if you are approved for both — and most people are — it takes longer since two different offices have to coordinate their efforts.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we keep working on your case even after you’re approved. Our job is not finished until you’ve been properly paid. Most of the time the correct payments come without too much delay. Sometimes there are problems. We work on those problems.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability because of a stroke?

Answer: Possibly. I all depends upon how badly the stroke affects you.

Strokes, what doctors call Cerebrovascular Accidents (CVAs), vary from something that causes only mild symptoms that disappear over a few weeks all the way up to something that puts a person into a chronic vegetative state or kills them.

Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIAs) are not really strokes. They’re caused by some temporary problem with blood flow to a part of the brain. I suppose that TIAs, if they were frequent enough and severe enough, could be disabling but that is unlikely. Usually, TIAs can be brought under control with medications. If they cannot be brought under control, the patient is likely to have a full-blown stroke anyway.

A stroke can affect a person in many different ways. One side of the body may become weak and uncoordinated. The ability to speak or understand speech my be affected. The ability to think and remember may be affected. The stroke victim’s personality may even change. Any of these may qualify a person for Social Security disability benefits.

When a person files a Social Security disability claim shortly after having a stroke, Social Security typically sits on the case for several months. This is deliberate. They want to see if you get better. If you get a lot better, they turn you down. If you remain severly disabled, they approve you. There are plenty of cases where Social Security turns down a stroke victim who has serious, permanent impairment as a result of a stroke.

If you have had a stroke, we would be happy to talk with you about a Social Security disability claim.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability if I have money in the bank?

Answer: Yes, you can get Social Security disability even if you have money in the bank.

One type of Social Security disability benefits is Supplemental Security Income (SSI). To get SSI, you must have low income and low resources. Money in the bank is a resource. If you have more than $2,000 in the bank, you’ll not normally be able to get SSI.

The more important type of Social Security disability benefits is Disability Insurance Benefits (DIB). You don’t have to be poor to get DIB. It doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank or how much investment income you have, you can still get DIB.

I think it’s important to talk about this because I sometimes take on a client who has waited until his or her funds are almost completely exhausted before filing for Social Security disability because they thought they could not get benefits until they had money in the bank.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability if I am in school?

Answer: Yes. Attending school has no direct effect upon receiving Social Security disability benefits.

I cannot say that it is impossible that an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) at Social Security would think that if you can attend school that you wouldt be able to work. You never know what might go through another person’s mind. However, there is no Social Security policy that makes a person attending school ineligible for Social Security disability benefits.

A person who is disabled may be going back to school in order to eventually return to work. The person would realize that they need an education in order to work with the sort of impairments they have. There are far more sedentary jobs available if you can read and write and do basic math. If anything, Social Security should encourage disabled people to return to school.

Some disabled people return to school mostly so they get out of the house on a regular basis. This sort of schooling, usually very much part time, definitely should not interfere with your Social Security disability claim.

Clients sometimes ask about the relationship between Social Security disability and Vocational Rehabilitation (VR). For the most part, Social Security disability and VR are on different tracks and do not interact with each other but there are exceptions.

Some people wonder if it is inappropriate for them to seek Social Security disability while working with VR. No, that’s not the case. You don’t have to be permanently disabled to get on Social Security disability. It’s perfectly OK to work with VR to figure out and implement a plan for return to work despite your disability.

Return to work, whether it’s part of a VR plan or not, can affect Social Security disability benefits but there are plenty of work incentives built into Social Security disability. It’s complicated but you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised at how much help Social Security gives you.

VR can be something of an aid in getting on Social Security disability. VR often pays for or administers some testing, usually of cognitive abilities or hand and arm dexterity. These test reports can be handy in getting a Social Security disability claim approved.

Sometimes claimants think that because VR has rejected them, that Social Security must approve their disability claim. I wish it worked like that but it doesn’t. Social Security pays virtually no attention to a VR decision not to work with you.

If you are already on Social Security disability, being in a VR program can almost guarantee that you will not be cut off Social Security disability due to medical improvement. The law allows you to stay on Social Security disability as long as you are in a VR program that is designed to improve your chances of staying off the disability rolls in the future. This doesn’t apply once you actually apply for work but if return to school as part of a VR program, you can’t be cut off benefits due to medical improvement while you’re still in school.

Question:

Answer: Probably not for urinary incontinence alone, but maybe if there are other things wrong with you — and there probably are.

I suppose that Social Security figures that you can wear Depends and get by. However, anyone with urinary incontinence has it for a reason. The cause of the urinary incontinence probably affects you in more ways than the urinary incontinence alone. We’ll be happy to talk with you to try to figure out if putting it all together gives you a decent chance at getting Social Security disability.

This is one of the reasons you need an attorney to represent you on a Social Security disability claim. The health problem that may be uppermost in your mind may not be the one that Social Security will pay the most attention to. You really need someone who is familiar with the way that Social Security looks at things to talk with you and figure out what will work best for your case because it may not be what you think.

This is also an important reason why you need an attorney who will meet with you in person. There’s are a lot of things I can learn from meeting with you in person that I would never learn by just talking with you on the phone. This information can be crucial in proving disability.

Answer: For the most part, yes.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which is administered by Social Security, is a needs based program. Income from another source, such as a VA benefit would reduce or eliminate SSI. VA non-service connected disability benefits are also a needs based program. Income from another source, such as Social Security disability benefits, would reduce or eliminate a VA non-service connected disability benefit.

Otherwise, VA benefits have no effect upon Social Security disability benefits based upon your earnings and VA service connected disability benefits are not affected by any Social Security benefit.

If you are drawing VA disability benefits, particularly if you have a high disability rating, you should be drawing or trying to draw Social Security disability benefits. The high disability rating does not guarantee victory on a Social Security disability claim but it’s a good sign. Conversely, don’t be too worried if VA only gives you a low disability rating. Your VA rating is probably based only upon your service connected impairments. Social Security will consider all your impairments regardless of whether or not they have a service connection.

This Is Fiction!

If you saw the movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, I am sure you remember the electroshock treatment given Jack Nicholson. If not, the picture to the left probably tells you all you need to know about public attitudes about one form of treatment for depression. However, that was a movie. It was fiction. To the extent that it had any basis in fact, its basis was treatment practices almost 50 years ago.

Let me tell you about electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as used today. First, it’s used only for very severe depression that does not respond to other treatments. ECT is a last resort. Second, the alternative to ECT may be death. You heard me right, death. Severe depression that does not respond to treatment often leads to death from suicide. Third, ECT as used now, is not painful. It is done under anesthesia.  Fourth, ECT works. Most people who have ECT respond. Many get a lot better.

What does this have to do with Social Security? If you have had or are now having ECT for depression, almost certainly should be applying for Social Security disability benefits. I wish I could say that you would be assured of a quick easy victory on a Social Security disability claim but that is probably not the case. That’s what we’re here for.

• 50.9 million — Number of Title II Social Security beneficiaries in December 2008 — about one in six Americans of all age
• $2.54 trillion — Value of Social Security trust funds at the end of fiscal year (FY) 2009, the highest amount in history
• 461,000 — Increase in number of people living in poverty in NC alone if Social Security ended
• 0.6% — Social Security administrative expenses as a percentage of retirement benefits paid in 2009
• 44% — Percent of Social Security’s operating budget spent administering disability programs
• 2.4% — Social Security administrative expenses paid as a percentage of disability benefits paid in 2008
• $27.2 billion — Cash workers compensation benefits paid nationally in 2007
• $106.3 billion — Cash Social Security disability insurance benefits paid in 2008
• 7 — Number of types of Social Security disability benefits (Disability Insurance Benefits, Disabled Widow and Widower Benefits, Disabled Adult Child Benefits, and Blindness Benefits under Title II of the Social Security Act; Adult Disability Benefits, Children’s Disability Benefits and Blind Benefits under Title XVI of the Social Security Act — Supplemental Security Income)
• 10,760,672 — Total number of persons receiving Title II Social Security disability benefits as of 2009
• 4 — Number of levels of administrative review at Social Security (initial, reconsideration, ALJ hearing, Appeals Council — cases may also be reviewed in the federal courts)
• 37% — Approval rate for Social Security disability claims at initial level
• 14% — Approval rate for Social Security disability claims at reconsideration level
• 63% — Administrative Law Judge approval rate for Social Security disability claims
• 1.1 million — Number of claimants who failed to appeal an initial denial of a Social Security disability claim in 2009
• 377 — Average national processing time for a request for hearing on Social Security disability claim in days
• $414,000 — Value of an approved Social Security disability claim if reduced to current value as of 2008, not counting value of Medicare
• $3,551.21 — Average fee for attorney representing Social Security disability claimant in 2010
• $1.32 billion — Amount of Social Security attorney fees paid nationally in 2010
• 38 — Number of attorneys certified by the NC State Bar as Social Security disability law specialists
• 570 — Number of cases disposed of by average Social Security ALJ in FY 2009
• $236 million — Value of cases disposed of by average Social Security ALJ in FY 2009
• 60% — Percentage of those drawing SSI on account of disability who have a mental disorder
• 1295 — Number of Social Security ALJs as of August 2010
• 866 — Number of federal Article III judges authorized (District Court, Courts of Appeals, Supreme Court)
• 395 — Number of state court judges in NC as of June 2008 (District Court, Superior Court, Court of Appeals, Supreme Court)
• 609,538 — Number of Social Security ALJ dispositions in FY 2009
• 21% — ALJ allowance rate at most conservative fully operational hearing office within the United States in October 2010 (Shreveport, LA)
• 89% — ALJ allowance rate at most liberal fully operational hearing office within the United States in October 2010 (Brooklyn, NY)
• 61.3% — Percentage of Social Security disability claims approved after all appeals in 1999
• 55.9% — Percentage of Social Security disability claims approved after all appeals in 2008
• 7.6% — Percent of population drawing Social Security disability benefits in Alabama
• 2.6% — Percent of population drawing Social Security disability benefits in Utah
• 5.4% — Percent of population drawing Social Security disability benefits in NC

Question: When should I hire a Social Security attorney?

Answer: As early as possible.

Nobody really wants to have to pay an attorney fee. A few people decide that they will wait until the last minute to hire an attorney, figuring that they will give themselves every opportunity to win without an attorney. They wait until a hearing is actually scheduled. Maybe they figure, incorrectly, that their attorney fee will be less if they wait until the last minute.  Of course, simple procrastination may be a big part of this. Don’t do this.

First, it is accepted wisdom among attorneys that there is a high chance that a prospective client calling you at the last minute is a prospective client that should be avoided. There seem to be a lot of problems in the cases of people who call at the last minute. Thus, if you wait until the last minute, you may not be able to find anyone to represent you.

Second, it takes time to properly represent a Social Security claimant. The time is measured in months, usually at least three, by my reckoning. I need to meet with you. I need to get access to your file at Social Security. I need to review it. I need to request medical records on you — which takes the most time.  Give me time to do my job properly and I’ll do a better job for you.

Third, it’s unlikely that you’ll save any money by delaying. The fee certainly won’t be less. You’re pretty unlikely to win after an initial denial until after a hearing. There’s a good chance that you’ll get discouraged and fail to file an appeal or make a mistake and fail to perfect an appeal.

South Wilmington Street Homeless Shelter

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we have a lot of homeless clients. Most of the time the homelessness is what I would call “soft” homelessness, that is a person who has no place of their own but who is able to stay with relatives or friends. If I were in that situation, I’d probably think it to be plenty “hard.” We do have plenty of clients whose homelessness is “hard” by any definition. These are folks who are staying in homeless shelters or living “on the streets.” That is an awfully tough life.

Your best bet if you have become homeless or are threatened with homelessness because you are sick is to vigorously pursue a Social Security disability claim. If you’re homeless or nearly homeless, in my book you simply have no other choice.

I also encourage anyone threatened with homelessness to start accepting the reality of their situation and doing everything possible to keep body and soul together. Don’t be embarrassed to accept food stamps. Don’t be embarrassed to ask family members and friends for help. Don’t be afraid of homeless shelters and soup kitchens. You gotta do what you gotta do.

We’re proud to be representing homeless people. We don’t care if your address is the South Wilmington Street shelter in Raleigh. Our job is to keep you from getting this poor or if you already have gotten this poor to get you some income so you can live with more safety, security, comfort and dignity.

Your Hearing Will Not Be A Math Test!!!

Question: Do I have to talk at my Social Security disability hearing?

Answer: Yes. If it’s your hearing, you’re the star witness. The attorney mostly asks questions but the questions are designed to get your story across to the judge. If the attorney and client are in synch, the client tells his or her story smoothly and easily without it being obvious that the story is largely being structured by the questions that are being asked. Of course, it matters whether the story is compelling or not to begin with. My questioning of you can only reveal the story that is there. It can’t make up a story. If it’s not there, it’s not there.

I get this question fairly frequently. It always surprises me. My client with a Social Security disability claim is the one who is sick. My client is the one who can testify based upon his or her personal experiences with illness, the one who can talk about pain or weakness or psychiatric distress. My clients do most of the talking at a Social Security disability hearing.

Don’t let this scare you off of asking for or attending a Social Security disability hearing. It’s far less scarey than you think. Generally, after a hearing my client seems relieved and feels that they should not have worried so much. The event looms larger in the imagination than the actual event does in the memories of those who have Social Security hearings.

The hearing is not some ordeal. It’s definitely not a math test. If you don’t remember an answer, just say you don’t remember. If you don’t know, just say you don’t know. The questions will almost certainly be straight forward. You know how you feel far better than anyone.

On occasion, I have a client ask if I think  they deserve Social Security disability benefits. More often, it’s an unstated question. In a sense, the answer is simple, if I took on your case, I think you should win and that you will win, so, yes, I think you deserve Social Security disability benefits. However, I think the question comes about not because the person really wants information. It’s a sign of how the person who has the question feels about himself or herself.

Being disabled is tough mentally. People who are disabled come to think of themselves as being less worthy than they used to be; less worthy of love, friendship and care. They think of themselves as less worthy of help from their government in their hour of need. The fact that Social Security has turned them down just contributes to the feelings of unworthiness. I could call this a manifestation of depression — and it is — but it goes deeper. Being disabled can be a soul-sucking experience.

The practical problem with a person having the concern that they may not “deserve” Social Security disability is that this can lead to the person failing to properly pursue their Social Security disability claim. Don’t do this. Winning a Social Security disability claim won’t solve all your problems or even your most important problems but it is an important way of making your situation better. Most of your problem have no ready solution. They have to be lived with. However, lack of money and lack of medical insurance are problems that can be dealt with by winning Social Security disability.

We’re here to help. We think you deserve a lot better than what life has given you. Don’t give up.

One of the saddest things about representing Social Security disability claimants is becoming all too aware of the bad things that can happen to people. For a parent, suffering the loss of a child is one of the most terrible things that can happen. Parents never get over this sort of loss.

Fortunately, few parents experience such horrible pain these days. Many of those who do eventually seem to end up filing Social Security disability claims. It’s not exactly what you might think — that all of these grieving parents suffer psychiatric problems. Many of these parents have very real physical health problems. Much of the time, the parent works for years after the tragedy.

I can’t say for sure exactly how the death of a child leads to disability. Certainly, a person’s mental makeup can help on hinder their ability to cope with illness. A grieving parent who is barely holding it together is unlikely to have the mental reserves to handle much physical illness. A person who is under stress is more susceptible to physical illness — and I’m talking about things such as heart attacks and arthritis. I expect that there are all sorts of ways that the death of a child affects a parent. To quote an old song, “It works just like a cancer. Gonna kill me by degrees.”

We’re here to help you with your Social Security disability claim. We’ll try to understand all the factors that are disabling you, even those that may not be so obvious.

Question: If I’m already on Social Security retirement benefits, will they give me more money if I become disabled?

Answer: Not unless you’re under full retirement age, currently 66.

If you’re asking this question and you’re already 66 or older, forget about it. Once you reach full retirement age, there is no disability. You’re already getting the full amount that you could possibly get anyway.

If you’re asking this question and you haven’t reached full retirement age, currently 66, you can file a claim for Social Security disability benefits. If the claim is approved, you will probably be able to get more per month. This is because Social Security retirement benefits are reduced if you retire before full retirement age, currently 66. However, disability benefits are not reduced for retiring early. If you convert early retirement benefits to disability benefits, they pay you more per month in the future and pay you the difference for earlier months. You don’t have to withdraw your retirement claim or go off retirement benefits to file a Social Security disability claim. They just keep paying you the early retirement benefits unless and until your disability claim is approved.

Question: If I’m already on Social Security disability, will they pay me even more if I get sicker?

Answer: No. Unlike workers compensation and VA benefits, there are no percentages of disability at Social Security. You can look at this as meaning that it’s either 100% or nothing at Social Security. You either get it or you don’t. Maybe VA will pay you more for becoming more disabled but Social Security won’t pay you any more for becoming more disabled.

Social Security will not pay you more money because your medical or living expenses go up along with increased disability. They won’t even talk with you about it.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for HIV?

Answer: No, you probably can’t get Social Security disability simply for being HIV+. You can certainly get Social Security disability if you have full blown AIDS but being HIV+ is rarely enough these days.

Of course, the good news is that being HIV+, while not great, is not all that bad these days. Medicines usually control the HIV infection and allow those who are HIV+ to live fairly normal lives without serious side effects from the medications.

There are a few people who suffer from severe side effects from the medicines they take for HIV. If you are in this category, we may be able to help you. There are a few people who do not technically have AIDS but who have severe symptoms from their HIV infection. Most, if not all, of these people are rapidly approaching full blown AIDS. We may be able to help you if you in this situation.

Most of the HIV+ people who contact us have other health problems which are causing them far more symptoms than their HIV. Hepatitis C, for instance, is common among those who are HIV+. There may be other more routine health problems such as arthritis or depression.

If you are HIV+ and feel that you are disabled, contact us. We’ll be happy to talk with you.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for bowel incontinence?

Answer: Yes, it is possible to get Social Security disability for bowel incontinence — that is inability to control your bowels, soiling yourself — also referred to as explosive diarrhea.

Most of the time when a person has this sort of symptom, physicians can help relieve the problem but not always. If you are one of the unlucky ones who has not responded to treatment, Social Security disability may be available to you.

In cases of alleged bowel incontinence, Social Security will look at your medical history. Is there a medical explanation for your bowel incontinence? Have you complained to your doctors? What have the tests shown?

It will help your case — but not your health — if there is a clear cut cause found such as inflammatory bowel disease such an Crohn’s disease. Any surgery you have had will certainly bolster your case. It will also matter whether you have other intestinal symptoms such as pain, nausea, bloating, or vomiting. Weight loss would be important. Hospitalizations help prove disability.

We stand ready to help you with a Social Security disability claim. Please contact us.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for agoraphobia?

Answer: Yes, it is possible to get Social Security disability benefits on the basis of agoraphobia.

Agoraphobia is the fear of going outside. Even if you suffer from agoraphobia, the whole idea of being afraid of going outside sounds weird. Most agoraphobics are embarrassed to admit their problem because they know it sounds so odd.

Agoraphobia is caused by panic attacks. A panic attack is a “sudden onset of intense anxiety, characterized by feelings of intense fear and apprehension and [often] accompanied by palpitations, shortness of breath, sweating, and trembling.” Panic attacks are terrifying. No one works can ignore or work through a panic attack. No matter how well a person knows that there is no real reason for panic, having a panic attack is a horrible feeling. No one ever gets used to panic attacks. The terror produced by a panic attack is just as real when it happens for the 100th time as when it happens for the first time.

Going outside is not the only thing that provokes panic attacks but it is the most common. The only difference between someone who has panic attacks and who can leave the house and someone who has panic attacks and cannot leave the house on their own is the frequency of the panic attacks. If a person has them frequently, they generally are agoraphobic.

Being agoraphobic does not mean never leaving the house. Many people with agoraphobia do leave their houses regularly but they must have a security person with them — a husband, wife, child, father, mother, brother, sister or friend with them. With this person along the agoraphobic can function OK outside the house. Without the security figure with them, they just don’t leave the house.

Social Security certainly does recognize that agoraphobia can be disabling, although most of these cases have to go to a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge.

Question: How can Social Security turn down a disability claim filed by someone who is in as much pain as I am?

Answer: Social Security has a real problem dealing with disability claims filed by people who are in a lot of pain. Social Security doesn’t deny that pain can be so bad that you can’t work with it. Social Security doesn’t even deny that you might be in that much pain. They just want you to prove that you’re in that much pain and by prove, they mean prove it beyond any doubt.

The problem with this is that you’ve probably never seen any machine at your doctor’s office that measured your pain. That’s because no such machine exists. That’s why they ask you that stupid question about rating your pain on a scale from one to ten. If they had some way of measuring your pain, would they ask you that question?

It’s impossible to tell how much pain someone else is in. It’s hard for a person who is in severe pain to understand but the rest of us don’t feel your pain. We also don’t see it,  smell it, taste it or hear it. We only know about your pain because you tell us about it. If that’s not enough to convince someone that you are in severe pain, there’s really nothing that will convince them. That’ s the problem with Social Security.

I make it sound worse than it is. At the initial and reconsideration levels you just don’t win based upon paid. When you get to a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge, it is certainly possible to win based upon pain. It’s a shame they make you wait that long and put you through so much heartache but that’s how it works out.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for a heart attack?

Answer: You may be able to get Social Security disability benefits based upon a heart condition.

A heart attack, known to doctors as a myocardial infarction, is a bad thing. It’s dangerous. There is nothing unusual about people dying suddenly as a result of a heart attack. However, if you have a heart attack and survive, you’re going to be treated and that treatment may get you back on your feet and working sooner than you would imagine.

Cardiac catherization with stent placement is probably the most common treatment after a heart attack. It can be done quickly with nothing more than a local anesthetic. It has an impressive safety record and often takes care of the problem quickly. Another possibility is  Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery, called a “cabbage” by doctors. In this procedure, your chest is opened and the blocked artery or arteries are bypassed, that is the surgeon puts in a new artery to go around the blockage caused by the heart attack. Whichever of these you receive or even if you receive no surgical treatment you’ll also receive medications which will help

Social Security disability is available for you if the treatment you receive as a result of your heart attack is not enough to get you back to work.

We’re available to help you with a Social Security disability claim but I have to say that we see a lot fewer Social Security disability claims based on heart attacks than we used to. I think it’s because doctors are doing such a good job in treating heart attacks.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for spondylolisthesis?

Answer: Yes, it is possible to get Social Security for spondylolisthesis.

But maybe I first need to explain what spondylolisthesis is for those who don’t know. Spondylolisthesis is probably the longest word I know how to spell and the longest word that I can more or less define. Spondylolisthesis is the slippage of one vertebra over another. The vertebrae are the bones in our spines. They are stacked up one on top of another. There are several mechanisms that are supposed to keep them in proper alignment with each other. When one or more of these mechanisms fails or just isn’t there because of a defect that someone is born with, one of the vertebrae can start slipping in relation to its neighbors. That slippage is called spondylolisthesis. It doesn’t take much slippage to start causing real problems since the spinal cord and the nerves branching off the spinal cord start getting pulled and pinched. They don’t like that and start causing a lot of pain.

The good thing is that there is a solution for most people who have spondylolisthesis which is causing them symptoms. They have spinal fusion surgery. The vertebrae are brought back into proper alignment and a metal plate is attached to them with screws to hold them in place. Sometimes this surgery can’t be done or is done and isn’t successful or seems to have been done successfully but the patient is still in a lot of pain, perhaps because too much damage was done before the surgery. People who have spondylolisthesis for which they cannot get surgery or for which surgery did not work can possibly get Social Security disability benefits.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for panic disorder?

Answer: Yes, it is possible to get Social Security disability for panic disorder.

Panic attacks are well known as overwhelming, terrifying events. No one works through a panic attack. Frequent panic attacks make any regular work impossible. Indeed, most people who have a serious panic disorder seldom leave their house and then only if they have a security figure, such as a spouse, child, parent, sibling or close friend with them.

You should be aware that many people who think they have had or are having panic attacks really aren’t. They’re not trying to fool anyone. Someone just mentioned the term “panic attack” to them and they picked up on it. I’m not going into the details since I’m not trying to coach anyone on how to feign something but there is a big difference between an anxiety attack and a panic attack. Severe anxiety can certainly be disabling but panic attacks exist on a different plane.

Panic attacks are frequently but not invariably associated with bipolar disorder. The panic attacks that often accompany bipolar disorder may be the most disabling part of bipolar disorder for many people.

If you have panic attacks, you should be under psychiatric care and you should tell your psychiatrist about the panic attacks. I have certainly seen over the years that people often are embarrassed by their panic attacks and don’t even want to tell their psychiatrist. If you are telling a Social Security Administrative Law Judge about panic attacks but not your psychiatrist, the judge is likely to wonder if you are telling him or her the truth.

hepatitis C virus

Answer: Yes, it is possible to get Social Security disability for hepatitis C, although Social Security doesn’t make it easy.

For whatever reason, Social Security seems like it just doesn’t like people with liver disease. It is very possible to be on a liver transplant list and be turned down for Social Security disability. Maybe it’s because a lot of liver disease is caused by alcoholism. Maybe it’s because hepatitis C has much the same risk factors as AIDS — unprotected sex and IV drug use. Mainly I think it’s because you just can’t measure the main symptom caused by hepatitis C, fatigue. Social Security doesn’t like to approve someone based upon something that can’t be measured. You can’t measure fatigue.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we help people with hepatitis C cases. Contact us to see if we can help you.

Question: Why don’t you go ahead and schedule my Social Security disability hearing?

Answer: If you’re asking that question of the attorney representing you on your Social Security disability claim, you’re asking the wrong person. It’s Social Security who schedules the hearings, not us.

Maybe there is some other type of legal proceeding where your attorney decides when your case is ready to be presented to a judge and then schedules a hearing or trial. Social Security isn’t like that. Social Security doesn’t wait on us to say we’re ready to have the case tried. Social Security decides when it is ready to hear the case and calls us to schedule the hearing. The options we have on when they call are limited. It’s more like, “I’ve got something else scheduled then. Can you do it some other time that week?” or “I’m on vacation that week. Can you do it some other week that month?”

You don't have to be in a wheelchair to be disabled!

Filing for SSI disability benefits is a tough thing for most people. It’s tough not because the process itself is that tough but because for most people filing for SSI disability benefits feel like admitting defeat. Filing for SSI disability benefits means that you are admitting to yourself and to the world that you are disabled. Most people think that being disabled is somehow shameful.  People don’t think it’s shameful for other people to be disabled. They just think it’s shameful if they are disabled.

Why would people think it is shameful if they are disabled but not if other people are disabled and filing for SSI? People have some strange attitudes towards disability. They’re perfectly willing to accept that other people are disabled and perfectly willing to help those other people, but not willing to accept their own disability and their own need for help. That’s nuts to outsiders, but most people needing to file for SSI have this attitude.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we can help you with the process of filing for SSI disability but we may be able to help you accept filing for SSI disability as well. It’s routine business for us — and for Social Security for that matter. We can also help you realize that filing for SSI disability is not a one way street leading straight to complete decrepitude and death. Filing for SSI disability doesn’t make you a bit sicker. You can drop the claim at any point if you start feeling better — although we’ll probably urge you to hold off of dropping the claim until you are completely sure of this decision.  If you get on benefits you can still go back to work. There are a lot of incentives for those on SSI disability to go back to work.

The main thing you need to know is that if you’re having trouble bringing yourself to start filing for SSI disability, you can call us. We’ll work with you to get the ball rolling and to keep it rolling until you’re approved.

Question: How can I trust an attorney to help me with a Social Security disability claim? They’re all sharks.

Answer: I could tell you that everyone who works at my law firm cares about the people we represent. I could tell you that the NC State Bar regulates attorneys and that we’re not allowed to abuse our clients. I could tell you that the whole “attorneys are sharks” thing is an invention of insurance companies who want you to be unrepresented when you deal with them. I could tell you a lot of things but if you firmly believe that attorneys are sharks and can’t be trusted, you probably won’t believe me, except when I tell you this. Except in rare cases, we only get a fee if you win. We can’t do anything to hurt you without hurting ourselves.

I don’t know whether you’ll believe this, but it may be worth saying. If you’re filing a claim for Social Security disability benefits you’re in a very vulnerable position, probably much more vulnerable than you realize. It’s obvious to anyone representing Social Security disability claimants that they are vulnerable. They are financially vulnerable. They are emotionally vulnerable. They are medically vulnerable. They are vulnerable because they have only the vaguest idea what goes on at Social Security. Because you seem so terribly vulnerable to us, we would have to be total jerks to abuse your trust. I won’t lie to you. Some attorneys betray their clients’ trust. Some Social Security attorneys do that. But if you don’t want to help vulnerable people, there’s not much point in representing Social Security claimants. There are easier ways to make a living.

Question: How do I get my Social Security disability case expedited?

Answer: I am sorry to say that the answer is that you probably can’t get it expedited.

Social Security is expediting the following categories of disability cases:

• Wounded warriors — that is individuals who are disabled as a result of military service. This does not have to be combat injuries
• Claimants who are terminally ill.
• Claimants who are without and unable to obtain food, medicine or shelter
• Claimants who are suicidal or homicidal

If none of those categories describe you, then you are ineligible for having your case expedited.

Despite this, it is possible to encourage Social Security to make a quicker decision in your case. Most prominently, we can ask Social Security to give you an “on the record” decision approving your disability claim without a hearing. At best, this works in about 20% of cases. It is less likely for claimants under 50 or for those whose main problem is mental. Alcoholism or other substance abuse also makes in harder to get an on the record reversal.

You should beware of anyone who touts their ability to get your case expedited.  There are no secret backdoor shortcuts. In general, attorneys like myself do what we can to get cases expedited but downplay those chances to our client. Social Security claimants need no encouragement to have unrealistic expectations. The hard part is bringing people down to reality and getting them to make the hard decisions they have to make to survive until they can get a win. If their decision happens to come a bit faster than expected, they can adjust easily. However, if it takes a lot longer than they expected, they can be in trouble.

Question:

Answer: Maybe. A lawyer’s favorite answer. Although no one doubts that a gout attack  is extremely painful, it is not easy to get Social Security disability benefits based solely on gout. You have to stay disabled 12 straight months.

One problem is that gout is usually not something that continually affects a person. It is episodic. It come and goes. Between attacks a person with gout may have few if any symptoms.

Another problem is that there is a perception that gout can be controlled with medication. This perception may not be completely accurate but it’s out there. Blame the ads you see on television.

Usually, people who file for Social Security disability and are troubled by gout have other physical or mental illness that will help them win their Social Security disability claim.

Question: This budget and debt ceiling thing worries me. Will it keep me from getting Social Security disability or lower my check?

Answer: If you are already on Social Security disability, nothing that is happening will lower your check or threaten you in any way.

If you are still trying to get on Social Security disability, there is nothing going on that will keep you from getting on Social Security disability. The worst that may happen is some minor delay in your case. If  your case somehow goes on for more than a couple of years (and that sometimes happens, even as things stand now) the delays could become more than minor but I think you would already judge a two year delay as a bad one.

While there are those in Congress and elsewhere who might want to keep you off Social Security disability or reduce your check, those people do not have the power to achieve their goal. You may feel sick and powerless but there are people fighting to make sure that Social Security disability gets better or, at least, doesn’t get any worse.

Question: I had a lawyer for my Social Security disability case but he dropped me. What can I do?

Answer: You had better start looking for another lawyer immediately. Maybe you have started this search which is why you’re reading this!

A new lawyer is going to be concerned about three things. First, what kind of case do you have? Being dropped by another lawyer could be a sign that your original lawyer thinks your case is weak. We may have a different opinion. It’s also possible that the first lawyer dropped you because you were uncooperative. That would worry a new lawyer. Second, will the first lawyer waive any attorney fee? I’m not going to get into the technicalities but if the first attorney does not waive a fee, it’s a lot more difficult for a new attorney to get a fee. Third, what will Social Security do even if the first attorney waives a fee? There have been cases where Social Security automatically cut the second lawyer’s fee in half even if the first lawyer waived his fee.

We certainly encourage you to stay with the attorney you hired for your Social Security disability case. However, if that attorney drops you, give us a call. We’ll look at your case. There are problems with these case but we do take them on.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for PTSD?

Answer: Yes, it is possible to get Social Security disability for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). They don’t make it easy. Merely having suffered a traumatic event in your life is not enough. All of us eventually suffer some traumatic stress. It has to be some event that has caused you to suffer a serious inability to function in your day to day life.

The nature of the stressful event is not important. This is because the event may not be as important as the person who experiences the event. There are people who survive incredibly stressful events in their life but who are able to function quite well. Senator John McCain, who was brutally imprisoned and tortured as a prisoner of war in Viet Nam, but who ran for President is an excellent example. Of course, he has horrible memories and, of course, he was changed by his experiences but what happened to him did not keep him from living his life. On the other hand, I have had clients whose lives were dramatically changed by PTSD from events such as an automobile accident in which no one suffered any significant physical injury or by the death of a loved one.

What matters is not the nature of the traumatic event but the severity of severity of the mental illness it has produced. If you are under ongoing psychiatric treatment and out of work due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), contact us. We may be able to help with a Social Security disability claim.

It is not unusual for a person to become disabled as a result of an automobile accident. It is certainly possible to get Social Security disability as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident.

The important thing you need to know if you have become disabled as a result of an automobile accident is that your disability has to have lasted or be expected to last for at least a year. That knocks out most people who have been injured in an automobile accident because their injuries are unlikely to keep them out of work for a year or more.

Notice that I said that the disability has to “have lasted or be expected to last for at least a year.” That’s the way the law is written.  You don’t have to wait a year to file your claim with Social Security. You don’t have to be sure that your disability will last a year to file a Social Security disability claim. You should file a disability claim as soon as it is apparent that your disability may last a year. There’s no penalty if you file the claim and it turns out that you recover in less than a year. You simply drop your claim. No big deal. However, if you wait to file your claim, you are penalized because it takes so long to be approved for Social Security disability. The earlier you start your claim, the better.

Question: What happens if I die before my Social Security disability claim is approved?

Answer: Yes, it’s a morbid question but it’s one I get more often than you might think. It’s a question that deserves an answer.

The claim probably won’t die if you die. Anything owed to you at the time you die will probably be paid to someone else.

The exception where back benefits are not paid is where the case is only Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and you’re not married or living with you spouse and you are not a child claimant living with a parent.

You can probably already figure out who gets what Social Security calls the “underpayment” when an SSI claimant died — the spouse living with the claimant or a parent with whom a child claimant has been living.

Non-SSI cases, what Social Security attorneys call “Title II” cases,  normally are paid not on the basis of any will you have and not on the basis of state laws concerning the estates of those who die without a will but under a set of priorities set forth in the Social Security Act. This is the list of priorities:

1. The surviving spouse of the deceased individual who either (i) was living in the same household with the deceased at the time of his death or (ii) was, for the month in which the deceased individual died, entitled to a monthly benefit on the basis of the same wages and self-employment income as was the deceased individual;
2. The child or children, if any, of the deceased individual who were, for the month in which the deceased individual died, entitled to monthly benefits on the basis of the same wages and self-employment income as was the deceased individual (and, in case there is more than one such child, in equal parts to each such child);
3. The parent or parents, if any, of the deceased individual who were, for the month in which the deceased individual died, entitled to monthly benefits on the basis of the same wages and self-employment income as was the deceased individual (and, in case there is more than one such parent, in equal parts to each such parent);
4. The surviving spouse of the deceased individual;
5. The child or children of the deceased individual (and, in case there is more than one such child, in equal parts to each such child);
6. The parent or parents, if any, of the deceased individual (and, in case there is more than one such parent, in equal parts to each such parent); or
7. The legal representative of the estate of the deceased individual

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for a shoulder problem?

Answer: Yes, whether it is a rotator cuff problem, chronic tendinitis or bursitis, instability, impingement, a fracture, a frozen shoulder, arthritis or even a tumor,  it is possible to get Social Security disability for a shoulder problem. Sometimes, it is not easy to get disability  benefits for a shoulder problem.

It is less difficult to get Social Security disability for a shoulder problem if you are at least 50. It’s much less difficult if you are 55 0r older. Social Security’s rules give a lot of weight to age.

Do not despair if you’re under 50. If you are having a series of shoulder operations or if you have severe pain from your shoulder or if you have other health problems in addition to your shoulder, it is certainly possible to get Social Security disability.

Do not be concerned if you have a workers compensation claim pending on your shoulder. You can get on Social Security disability even while receiving workers compensation.

Answer: Maybe. Isn’t that the way with lawyers; we never give a straight answer! Let me lay out the bad and the good about hand injury cases:

• If the hand injury is going to heal in less than a year, you’re going to be denied on duration, since disability has to last a year to get Social Security disability.
• If you’re over 50 your chances are better. If you’re over 55 your chances are much better. Under 50, it’s really tough to win a hand injury case.
• If it is both hands that are injured, your chances are much, much better even if you’re under 50 — as long as you meet or will meet the one year duration requirement.
• If you have other injuries, your chances may be better, depending upon the extent of the other injuries.
• If your hand injury is causing chronic, severe pain, your chances of success are better.

Each case is unique. Contact us so we can evaluate your case.

Question:

Answer: You must apply for Social Security disability and keep appealing if Social Security turns you down.

This is a common question we get. Sometimes, the question comes from women clients but mostly it’s from men. Most people think there is no debtor’s prison in the U.S. but for child support, there is.

What we do in this situation is to give you a letter saying we’re representing you on your Social Security disability claim. You can take the letter to the judge. Almost always this is enough to keep our client out of jail.

It helps if the person with custody of the child is understanding of your problems. If that person tells the judge that you’re working under the table you may have trouble staying out of jail. It’s certainly crucial that you go to any child support hearing.

This Would Also Be A Bad Idea!

Don't Wear This To Your Social Security Hearing!

Question: How should I dress for my Social Security disability hearing?

Answer: Don’t dress up. Dress the way you normally would around the house. Men definitely should not wear a tie. Women should not wear makeup or jewelry or have their nails painted.

Question:

Answer: You don’t even have to wait a day. You can file your claim the same day you become disabled.

Waiting to file for Social Security disability can be a serious mistake. People often wait until they’re destitute and nearly homeless before filing a claim for Social Security disability benefits. Don’t make that mistake! You don’t have to wait any time before filing a claim. It often takes literally years to get on Social Security disability. The earlier you start, the earlier you get on benefits.

Social Security sometimes decides that you weren’t disabled at the time you filed your claim but were at a later date. This can be appealed if you want but any appeal puts at risk what has already been approved. My point is that it’s no big deal if it turns out that you file your claim too early. Maybe, you get feeling better and return to work. You can drop the case if you have to. What’s the worst they can do? Turn you down. What’s the worst thing that can happen if you delay in filing a claim? You could end up homeless and in the streets with no medical care. Which risk would you choose?

Answer: No. I wish it were that simple.

When you contact your Congressman about your Social Security disability case, the Congressman’s staff sends a form letter to Social Security. You get a copy. Social Security sends a form letter back to your Congressman. You get a copy. It looks like something important is going on but it’s just a meaningless exchange of form letters. You can read the form letters that Social Security uses. It doesn’t help you. It doesn’t hurt you. It does not affect your case.

While contacting your Congressman may do nothing to advance your individual case, it does alert Congress to the problems at Social Security. However, judging by the poor funding that Social Security receives, the message isn’t getting across as well as it ought to.

Question:

Answer: Yes, you can get Social Security disability for a broken bone but it isn’t easy.

The problem with fractures is the requirement that to get Social Security disability that you must have been or be predicted to be  disabled for at least a year. The overwhelming majority of fractures heal in less than a year. Some don’t, though. If you have a fracture that may not heal within a year, give us a call.

There is also the question of how well a fracture heals. As we get older, fractures tend to cause more permanent impairment and I’m not necessarily talking about fractures that happen after one gets older. Even childhood fractures that seemed to heal and not be much of a problem when one is young can become a big problem when one gets older. This is especially the case when the fracture is in or near a joint.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we regularly help people who have disability claims based upon fractures. Contact us if we can help you.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for a foot problem?

Answer: Yes, it is possible to get Social Security disability for a foot problem. It’s much less difficult to get Social Security disability for a foot problem if you’re 50 or older.

Social Security makes it less difficult for those 50 or older to get disability benefits generally. A foot problem that limits one to sedentary work qualifies most people to Social Security disability if they are 50 or older and they have not performed sedentary work in the last 15 years.

It’s more difficult to get on Social Security disability benefits for a foot problem if you’re under 50 but not impossible. Let me give you a couple of examples.

• Example 1: Social Security claimant is 38 years of age. He was working in a garage helping to remove an engine from a car when something slipped and the engine fell on one of his feet, breaking several bones and generally crushing the foot. Crush injuries are often worse than fractures. He undergoes a series of operations, including skin transplants, multiple debridements of dead tissue, pinning of fractures, etc. This series of operations lasts for more than a year. The claimant should qualify for Social Security disability benefits.
• Example 2: Claimant suffers a fall from a considerable height and lands on his feet. Both of his heels are crushed. Heel fractures never heal, not just for this claimant, but for anyone. As a result of the heel fractures, the claimant can barely walk at all and has a lot of pain. The claimant has a good claim for Social Security disability benefits

You will notice that the examples I have given concern pretty extreme injuries. Don’t get too discouraged if your injuries aren’t that bad. I was looking for examples of cases where it is pretty clear that the claimant would win despite being under 50. Claimants with lesser foot problems can also win, especially if they have health problems apart from their feet. That is often the case.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability if I’m still in the armed forces?

Answer: Yes. I know that answer may surprise a lot of people but you certainly can get Social Security disability benefits while still on active duty in the armed forces.

Let me explain. People in the armed forces can get injured in combat. People in the armed forces also become disabled in the same ways as everyone else, by cancer, heart attacks, car wrecks, mental illness, etc. When a member of the military becomes unable to perform his or her duties due to illness, he or she is assigned to a unit that has traditionally been called Medical Holding Company but which may go by other names these days, depending upon the branch of service and the location. Being in the Medical Holding Company gives the service member time to recover. Often, service members leave Medical Holding Company to go back to regular duties. Sometimes, it become clear over time that the service member will not return to regular duties and must be separated from the military. The process of separating a service member from military service due to illness or injury can take time — many month. In the end, a service member may be in Medical Holding Company for well over a year.

For disability claims, Social Security only cares if you are working or not. It doesn’t matter that you’re still on a payroll, even if it’s a military payroll. You can read this policy in black and white in Social Security’s manual. It doesn’t matter that you’re technically in the active duty military. You can file a Social Security disability claim while in Medical Holding Company, be approved and be paid Social Security disability benefits.

If you’re in Medical Holding company and it doesn’t look like you’re going to be able to return to regular duties, consider filing a claim for Social Security disability benefits.

Answer: It varies — a lot. There are some hearings in less than six months. Other people have to wait over a year.

Here are some recent numbers on receipts, dispositions, cases pending and how long it takes at various Social Security hearing offices. The last number is expressed in days and counts the total time up to a decision being issued. It’s the average processing time. Your case could take longer.

* Satellite Offices reported separately from their parent office.

Question: Why do they pay Social Security disability to alcoholics and drug addicts.

Answer: Social Security doesn’t pay disability benefits to anyone because they are an alcoholic or a drug addict. The law says they can’t.

However, something like 20% of the adult population has an alcohol or drug problem. Do we want to deny disability benefits to someone dying of cancer because they drink too much? I would say no, go ahead and pay that person who is dying of cancer even if they drink too much. That’s also what the law says. We don’t give benefits to people because they are alcoholics or drug addicts but we don’t withhold it from them if they are disabled by other problems.

It isn’t always easy to tell how much of a person’s disability is due to, let’s say, mental illness, and how much is due to alcoholism or drug addiction. In those cases, Social Security has made the decision to pay these folks.

On the whole, there is a lot of prejudice against people who has alcohol or drug problems. That can make their Social Security disability cases harder to win.

Yes, it’s possible that you know someone whom you regard as a pathetic or disgusting alcoholic or drug addict who is getting Social Security disability but they are not getting those benefits because of their alcoholism or drug addiction but despite it.

Question: Can I mow my yard if I am on Social Security disability?

Answer: Yes, you can mow your yard if you are on Social Security disability but to be completely frank, I cannot absolutely guarantee that no problem will arise from mowing your yard.

I have had clients who were outraged by seeing their neighbor mow his or her lawn while on Social Security disability. I have never understood why. Perhaps, they think that disabled people are supposed to hide in their houses and never try to do anything. These clients who are outraged at their neighbor mowing their lawn while on Social Security disability would be outraged at being restricted in this way themselves.

Sometimes, people make reports to Social Security about people who are on disability benefits who do things like mow their yards. Generally, Social Security ignores this sort of thing unless the report is unusually strong — let’s say a person who is supposed to be a paraplegic is mowing his lawn. That might raise some eyebrows.  Social Security can and does investigate this sort of thing but it normally takes something more than just mowing your yard.

Mowing your yard is hardly inconsistent with being on disability benefits for most people. Why would it matter if a person mowed his yard if he or she is severely mentally ill? Many disabled people are encouraged to exercise. Mowing a yard is exercise. Mowing a yard on a riding lawnmower is not that demanding. Many lawns are small. Some people mow a little bit at a time. There are many things that can explain why a disabled person would be mowing his or her lawn.

In the end, the concerns about disabled people doing things like mowing their yard are an expression of the fact that being disabled is really looked down on by many people. I wish it were not so, but it is.

Question:

Answer: Yes, it is certainly possible to get Social Security disability even if you doctor thinks you’re not disabled.

Social Security doesn’t pay as much attention as I’d like when my client’s doctor gives an opinion that my client is disabled. The other side of the coin is that they usually don’t pay that much attention to an opinion from my client’s doctor that my client is not disabled. It helps if your doctor supports your disability claim but it’s not the end of the world if you doctor feels otherwise.

Some doctors have some strange attitudes about disability. Their political views may be such that they oppose anyone getting Social Security disability benefits. They may think that as long as you’re not bedridden that you’re not disabled. They may not be aware of all that’s wrong with you. Doctors rarely pay attention to your age, education and work experience, as Social Security must.

Question:

Answer: You and your attorney, if you have one, are in one location and the judge is in another location. You see each other on TVs. You can speak to each other.

Question: Is a video hearing just as good as an in-person hearing?

Answer: Not in my mind. The video screens are usually huge but the picture quality is terrible. There is a sound delay so people end up talking over each other. It just doesn’t feel the same at all.

Question: Do I have to accept a video hearing?

Answer: No, you can refuse a video hearing. If you do, you’ll get a live hearing.

Question: Is there any harm in refusing a video hearing?

Answer: Yes, delay. At best, refusing a video hearing delays your hearing by at least a month. It can easily be a three month delay.

Question: Should I go ahead with a video hearing?

Answer: I really don’t like video hearings but I can’t say that the outcome is different with a video hearing. Most of my clients are quite eager to get a hearing as soon as possible and don’t want to delay to get a live hearing. Most of my clients don’t dislike a video hearing as much as I do.

I do not take on the disability claims of people who are doing much work. It is either difficult or impossible to win these cases. I frequently get calls from people who want to keep working something like full-time while trying to get on Social Security disability benefits. I understand. They don’t want to give up their job until they’re actually on disability benefits. They tell me that they can’t survive without an income. I understand but it doesn’t matter.

Unfortunately, the law is not on the side of someone who wants to work until they get on Social Security disability benefits. The rule is pretty simple, at least in theory. If you’re working very much, you’re not disabled. Period. It does not matter how sick you are or how strong a reason you have for staying on the job. Often when I tell people this, they want to argue with me. I understand the impulse to argue with such a harsh rule but there’s nothing I can do about it. I have to deal with the law as it is, rather than how I or my clients might wish it to be.

To be frank about it, people in this situation need to understand that things may look a little different to others. One very harsh view, which I don’t share, is that anyone who wants to work while trying to get on Social Security disability benefits is just lazy. They only work when they have to and only as long as they have to.  Remember, I told you this isn’t a view that I share. The sad thing is that disabled people are often looked down upon by society which is all too quick to judge them harshly.

People often want to try to work part time while trying to get on Social Security disability benefits. That’s tricky at best. If you’re working only a little, in theory you can qualify for Social Security disability benefits — in theory. In practice, a lot of the time judges wonder why people who work part time can’t work full time. It’s harsh but that’s often the way it is.

Answer: Yes. You’re the star witness. You know how you feel better than anyone. Remember, that I’m talking about you testifying. You don’t make any speeches. Just answer the questions you’re asked as best you can.

Question: What if I say something wrong?

Answer: The only thing you can say that is wrong is a lie. Just tell the truth. If the truth isn’t going to win your case, then your case probably couldn’t be won anyway. If you make a simple slip of the tongue, I’ll just ask you another question or two to give you a chance to get it straight.

Question: What if I forget something?

Answer: No big deal. Just say ” I don’t remember” or “I don’t know.” Never make up an answer.

Question: What if I start crying?

Answer: People cry in Social Security hearings all the time. There will be a box of tissue on the table in front of you. Honestly, it’s no big deal.

Question: What if I need to stand up?

Answer: Stand up. You don’t have to ask anyone’s permission. Just stand up. No one will be surprised. It happens all the time. Just don’t wander too far away from the microphone.

Question: What’s this about a microphone?

Answer: The microphone is to record your voice. The room is small enough that everyone can hear everyone else easily without amplification.

Question: Will the judge tell me whether I win or lose?

Answer: You probably won’t be told on the day of the hearing whether you’ve won. You’ll get that information later.

Question: Want some more information to help you?

Answer: Take a look at the picture up above. Notice that fancy white seal on the wall behind and above the judge? You may see one of those in your hearing room. It’s make of molded, painted styrofoam. Seriously. It weighs about an ounce.

Question:

Answer: I often tell my clients that a Social Security hearing is about as stressful as getting your drivers license renewed. Yes, it’s a bit stressful but only at a fairly low level. An average person can sail through it easily. Even people with serious psychiatric problems get through hearings without difficulty. It’s just an opportunity for you to tell the judge why you can’t work.

Question: Will I have to go before a judge?

Answer: Yes, the person holding the hearing has the title “judge.”  Remember, you’re not being accused of a crime. You’ve done nothing wrong. You should be treated courteously. You may even find the hearing friendly.

Question: Will I have to go into a big courtroom?

Answer: No. It should just be a fairly small room. Nothing fancy. There won’t be more than the few people needed to do the hearing itself. No spectators. No jury. No opposing attorney trying to get you denied. If anything, it may be a letdown after waiting so long for a hearing to see just how routine it all is.

See more tomorrow!

Yesterday, I talked about Social Security disability and Medicare. So, what about that similar sounding program called Medicaid?

Medicaid, like Medicare, also pays medical bills but the similarities end about there. Medicaid is a poverty program. You have to have low income and resources to get it. One way of being categorically eligible for Medicaid is to qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI). SSI is available to the aged (65 or older), blind and disabled.

Unlike Medicare, there is no waiting period for Medicaid. That is very important. That two and a half year waiting period for Medicare is a killer — literally.

There are no premiums for Medicaid. You may have some deductibles and co-payments for Medicaid but not much. That is also quite important.

I’ve talked about the good things about Medicaid. Let me talk about the bad things. Medicaid reimburses doctors and hospitals at a much lower rate that Medicare or private insurance. Doctors and hospitals are supposed to give the same care to Medicaid patients as their other patients but patients don’t always see it that way.  What’s worse is that some hospitals and a lot of doctors won’t accept Medicaid patients. You may have only limited or no choices on whom you can see.

Despite these problems, having Medicaid is immeasurably better than having no medical coverage.

We often hear from our clients that receiving Medicare or Medicaid is just as important to them as receiving cash disability benefits from Social Security. The only problem is that our clients can’t seem to tell the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. They sound so similar but they are different. Let’s start out today talking about Medicare. Look at tomorrow’s post for information on Medicaid.

Medicare is not a needs-based program. You don’t have to be poor to get it. You do have to pay one or more premiums to receive all the benefits of Medicare.

Medicare goes to those who have been on a Title II Social Security disability benefit for two years. Title II Social Security benefits are those based upon someone’s record of paying into the Social Security trust funds. There are three main types of Title II Social Security disability benefits:

• Disability Insurance Benefits — the claimant must have worked for a significant length of time under Social Security.
• Disability Widows and Widowers Benefits — the claimant must be the widow or widower of someone who worked a significant length of time under Social Security and be 50 or older and become disabled within a set length of time after their husband or wife died.
• Disability Adult Child Benefits — the claimant must be the child of someone who is drawing Social Security benefits based upon their own earnings record or the child of a deceased parent who had earned enough to have qualified for benefits before dying. Also, the child must have become disabled before age 22.

Note that I said that there is a 24 month waiting period after cash disability benefits begin before a person becomes eligible for Medicare. That 24 month waiting period is on top of the 5 months waiting period for cash benefits. This means the waiting period is almost two and a half years! That’s brutal! Why so long? Because it saves money.  No other reason. I should say that there are exceptions to the long waiting period for those who need to get into kidney dialysis or who have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Medicare has three main parts.

• Part A, which pays for inpatient medical care and kidney dialysis.
• Part B, which pays for outpatient medical care.
• The prescription drug benefit which helps pay for prescription medications.

You do not have to pay for Part A. For Part B there is a premium to be paid, currently $115.40 per month for most people. If you qualify for Part B, you will automatically be put on Part B. You can decline it but should not do so lightly. Having other insurance is not a good idea to decline Part B because your other insurance will almost certainly convert into a Medicare Supplement policy once your Medicare entitlement begins — and yes, they will know when you’re eligible for Medicare.

The premium for the prescription drug benefit depends upon which plan you choose. You can go online to see what is available in your area. Your pharmacy may also be able to help you choose the best plan for you. You will not be automatically enrolled in the Prescription Drug Benefit. You have to do that yourself.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for burns?

Answer: Yes, you can get Social Security disability for burns if you will be disabled for at least a year by the burns.

Except for the most extreme cases, burn patients get stabilized within a lot less than a year so the question is whether the person remains disabled after the initial acute phase of treatment. Burns are certainly do this. There may be an ongoing series of operations that lasts more than a year or the burns may have left the victim with such severe problems with adhesions and contractures that they are unable to work. There may be associated lung or other internal organ damage. Severe disfigurement may leave the burn victim unwilling to leave the house. There may be psychiatric problems in the wake of the burns that leave the person disabled.

It is impossible to generalize about burn cases since each one is unique. We do not see these cases every day but we certainly handle them. Do not be too discouraged if Social Security turns you down for disability based upon burn injuries. Often, these decisions are overturned on appeal.

Contact us if we can help with your Social Security disability claim.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for a lightning strike injury?

Answer: Yes, it is possible to get Social Security disability benefits for injuries caused by a lightning strike. Some people may think that anyone hit by lightning is always killed but that is not true. Many people survive lightning strikes with varying degrees of damage.

No one is ever quite the same after being struck by lightning. Obviously, there may be severe burns but more likely there are diffuse damage to the nervous system including the brain. There may be personality changes and depression. There may be many problems that Social Security has trouble believing because they cannot be easily measured. Social Security disability claimants with lightning strike injuries often have to go to hearings before Social Security Administrative Law Judges (ALJs).

You might think that Social Security disability claims based upon lighting strike injuries would be rare. They are not all that common but they are not all that rare either. I have represented a number of Social Security disability claimants with lightning strike injuries.

Give my firm a call if you need help with your Social Security disability claim.

Question:

Answer: Yes, you probably can get Social Security disability for syringomyelia. Syringomyelia and the Chiari malformations that often lead to syringomyelia are very serious medical conditions. Those suffering from these problems usually have strong Social Security disability claims, although ones that Social Security may not immediately approve. I have had to take several of these cases to Administrative Law Judge hearings after Social Security had twice denied the claims. It’s uncommon, thank goodness, but not that rare when you’re talking about Social Security disability hearings.

If you’re wondering what syringomyelia is, take a look at that MRI image to the left. That darker tube going down the middle of the spine is the spinal cord. Notice the lighter lozenge shaped area in the middle of the spinal cord towards the bottom of this image? That area is what physicians call a syrinx.  It’s a cyst. It’s not supposed to be there. It can grow over time. It causes damage to the spinal cord and, obviously, spinal cord damage is a very bad thing.

Question: Can you get Social Security disability for autism?

Answer: Probably so.  Let me be clear. Few people suffering from autism or autism spectrum disorders such as Asperger’s syndrome work enough to be able to get disability benefits based upon their own earnings. Social Security disability for autism or Asperger’s is almost always one of two different types of benefits — Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Disabled Adult Child benefits.

SSI is available to those who are disabled and who lack income and resources of their own (once they are 18). Most who have autism or Asperger’s lack income or resources of their own and, thus, potentially qualify for SSI, assuming they can prove disability. Things are a bit different for SSI disability benefits for children, those under 18. The parents income and resources count. Still, it is probably worth filing a SSI child’s claim for any child who has autism or Asperger’s unless the parents are fairly well off. The worst they can do is deny the claim due to excess income or resources. Many parents who have a comfortable financial situation never think of filing an SSI claim for their child with autism or Asperger’s when the child reaches age 18. Do it! It’s important for the child’s future that the child have a source of income.

Disabled Adult Child benefits are available to a person who becomes disabled before age 22 — which would be the case for a person with autism or Asperger’s — whose mother or father is drawing Social Security benefits or their own account or who died after working enough to have potentially been eligible for benefits on their own account. Remember, you don’t have to file a claim for Disabled Adult Child benefits before the person turns 22, just prove they were disabled before then. I’ve gotten Disabled Adult Child benefits for people in their 40s or 50s.

I don’t want to suggest that every claim for Social Security disability benefits based upon autism or Asperger’s syndrome is going to be approved, although it may be close to every one when we are talking about autism itself. Asperger’s is certainly more difficult since people with Asperger’s  may not seem to be that impaired when one looks at them superficially. but, still, I don’t hesitate to take on Asperger’s cases.

Question: Can I get Social Security disability for

Answer: It is certainly possible to get Social Security disability benefits for interstitial cystitis. A victory cannot be guaranteed but people are certainly approved for Social Security disability benefits for this painful, unpleasant condition. A lot depends upon the severity of the disease. There are some people who respond to medications and are able to work despite their interstitial cystitis. There are others who do not get enough relief from medications and are unable to work. Social Security has adopted a ruling dealing with interstitial cystitis cases although if you read it closely you will find it amazingly vague. It seems to promise a lot more than it delivers.

If you have been diagnosed with interstitial cystitis, you had probably never even heard of the disease until you were diagnosed, so you may feel very alone but there are others in the same boat with you. We know about the pain, urinary frequency and urgency associated with this disease. We know that this may not sound disabling to those who don’t understand the disease but that it really can be terribly disabling. We help people with interstitial cystitis.

Question:

Answer: You may be able to get Social Security disability for spasmodic torticollis. It’s impossible to say for sure without reviewing the evidence in your case. Even after reviewing the evidence, it probably won’t be possible to say for sure. Social Security just isn’t as predictable as we would like. Certainly, plenty of people have been given Social Security disability for spasmodic torticollis. Social Security has no specific criteria for granting disability based upon spasmodic torticollis.

Spasmodic torticollis, also called cervical dystonia or wryneck, is not something we see every day but it’s not all that rare either. It’s a condition that causes the neck to turn involuntarily to the right or left or up or down. It’s a neurologic problem involving the muscles in the neck. The head being turned involuntarily is bad enough but there is often a lot of pain with the condition. Botox injections are used to treat spasmodic torticollis but it only helps so much.

We can help with a Social Security disability claim based upon spasmodic torticollis.

You Might See Me Wearing This Outside The Office -- But Never In A TV Ad

You’ve seen the TV ads for Binder and Binder. I’ve posted before on the differences between Binder & Binder and this law firm. There are even more differences now than I knew then.

Binder and Binder (pronounced as if it were spelled “Bender and Bender”) has been sold. It is now owned by a private equity company based in Miami. It was bought in a leveraged buyout in August 2010.

The Binder & Binder advertising on TV is not a law firm. It is part of a conglomerate. It’s still based in the New York City area.

We’re a law firm. I know, you may not trust lawyers, but how much do you trust big conglomerated corporations? We’re not based in New York City or Miami but here in North Carolina. Want to get the owner of Binder and Binder on the phone? Good luck even figuring out who that is much less in getting that person or persons on the phone. Want to get the owner of the Charles T. Hall Law Firm on the phone? Just give me a call at 1-866-425-5347. Not all phone calls coming in to this firm are directed to me, but if you really want to speak to me, you can.

Here’s a list of some ways you can make a mess of your Social Security disability case — things you need to avoid doing.

• Delay and delay filing your Social Security disability claim until you’re desperately poor. I understand. You keep thinking you might get better and filing for Social Security disability looks like such a hassle.  The problem is that Social Security isn’t likely to approve your claim immediately. You don’t want to hear that it may take well over a year to win your Social Security disability claim when you’re threatened with being homeless next week. Don’t wait on filing your claim. Do it as soon as it’s clear that you’re going to be out of work due to illness for more than two or three months. If you get better, you can go back to work and just abandon your claim.
• Get frustrated when Social Security turns you down and just walk away — until a few months later when you start all over again from scratch. It’s very frustrating to get denied but it’s also very common at Social Security. Don’t get mad. Get busy filing an appeal. If you walk away after a denial, you’re probably just adding months and months onto an already lengthy process.
• Stop seeing doctors. You’re hurting your chances of being approved if you discontinue medical treatment. Talk with your doctor about reducing the frequency of your visits, reducing the expensive tests and dropping specialist care. If you can’t afford your doctor any more, look around for free medical clinics.
• Avoid hiring an attorney to represent you. Notice that the kinds of things I’m talking about above are pretty simple and seem obvious when you think about them? Yet, many, many Social Security claimants make these mistakes when they don’t have an attorney helping them. There’s a good chance that you’ll do something equally foolish if you don’t have an attorney representing you. And, of course, I’m just talking about the simple stuff here. That’s many more complicated things that an attorney representing you on a Social Security disability claim does.

Question: Why is my Social Security attorney trying to get me to go to a psychiatrist?

Answer: First, no Social Security attorney with any sense is trying to get ALL of his or her clients to go to a psychiatrist but any Social Security attorney with any sense tries to get some of his or her clients to go to a psychiatrist.

It’s a given that virtually all Social Security disability claimants display some symptoms of psychiatric disorder. It’s not hard to understand why. Take someone out of work, away from their normal routine, away from their workplace friends, deprive them of the self-esteem that comes from working, make them unable to support themselves and their families, cause them to worry about money all the time, put them in pain, make them go to endless doctor appointments where they keep hearing things they don’t understand and make them deal with a huge government agency that seems heartless and incomprehensible, well, what can you expect? Of course, someone in this situation is going to get depressed. That’s not abnormal.

The fact that a person’s depression is a perfectly understandable reaction to a difficult situation does not make that depression any less real. Often, it is sensible to treat that depression. Often, getting treatment for that depression will help a Social Security disability claim — but only if it makes sense for that person to get treatment. Sending you to a psychiatrist if you don’t really need psychiatric treatment isn’t going to help your case — or you — a bit.

Of course, there are others filing for Social Security disability benefits whose mental illness long preceded any Social Security disability claim. Many people with serious, longstanding psychiatric problems resist getting psychiatric treatment. These folks are not going to get on Social Security disability benefits without getting psychiatric treatment. As I often tell my clients who are refusing to get in psychiatric treatment , Social Security’s unspoken question is likely to be “If you’re so disabled by mental illness, why don’t you go see a psychiatrist?”  If you don’t have a good answer to that question, you probably need to see a psychiatrist. In fact, even if you THINK you have a good answer to that question, you probably need to see a psychiatrist because the answer you THINK is good, probably isn’t.

The bottom line is this. Whenever I refer a client to a psychiatrist, almost always someone else in that person’s life, someone who knows that person a lot better than I ever will,  has already been trying to get them to go to a psychiatrist. Often, I have a client and one of their family sitting in front of me. The client is literally shaking their head “no” while their family member is nodding their head “yes” when I’m talking about the client getting in psychiatric care. If you find yourself in this situation, listen to your attorney but also listen to the people who love you. Probably, the attorney and the people who love you will be in agreement on this subject.

Frequently, I hear from my clients trying to get on Social Security disability  “I’m only trying to get back what I paid in. It’s my money.”

I understand the sentiment but it really doesn’t get you very far with Social Security. Actually, if you are approved for Social Security disability benefits, within a couple of years you’ll probably be paid everything you actually paid into the Social Security trust funds and then some. People badly overestimate how much they pay in FICA taxes.

You actually don’t want back just what you paid into Social Security because that would be quickly exhausted. What you want are the insurance benefits you paid for over the years. If your house burns down, the insurance company doesn’t just refund the premiums you paid in.  The insurance company pays you for the loss to the extent of your insurance. It doesn’t matter whether that house has been insured for only a few days or for decades before the fire.

Social Security disability benefits are a form of social insurance, designed so that workers pay premiums through their taxes and then receive benefits that they have become entitled to.

While you may not be looking merely to get back what you paid in, the fact that you worked and paid taxes is important. It means that you should expect courteous, professional service from Social Security and a sympathetic ear when you tell them why you cannot work.

I am sorry to say that Social Security is not able to provide service that is as courteous or as professional as one might like and that the agency is far less sympathetic to disabled people than I think they should. Congress is not giving the agency adequate operating funds and service is not at all what it should be. Congress has traditionally been quite concerned about Social Security approving too many disability claims. It’s always been difficult to get approved for Social Security disability.

If you’d like some help getting what you’re entitled to, some help in dealing with a large, impersonal bureaucracy, contact us. That’s what we do.

SSI Disability Lawyers are used in the Social Security disability process every day. There are large national firms that handle SSI and Social Security cases, and there are small local firms that handle these cases. The Charles T. Hall Law Firm employs 7 attorneys, 2 of which are NOSSCR Board Certified Social Security Disability Specialists. All of our attorneys work on Social Security disability and SSI cases only.

Choosing which SSI disability lawyers to work with is a question that many people research in length. The answer is easy. Do you want to work with a local firm who has proven itself over and over again, where you can get personalized service, answers to your questions, and the feeling that you are more than just a number? In the alternative, you can work with a national firm that may lack that personal touch.  The Social Security process is complicated, and having an attorney to represent you can make the process run as smoothly as possible.  If you are disabled, you may be eligible to receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and/or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).

In order to receive these benefits, the Social Security Administration mandates that you prove you are unable to work due to a medical condition that will last for at least one year in duration, or that will ultimately result in death.

The process of applying for benefits and proving your claim can be tedious and confusing. Failure to meet certain deadlines and complete paperwork required by the Social Security Administration can lengthen your wait-time drastically; these failures too, can even cause you to lose your case! Statistically, you are more likely to win your case with the help of a skilled disability benefits attorney.

via Social Security Disability Lawyers.

The majority of claims that enter the Social Security disability system are denied at the initial level. Working with an expert in Social Security Disability Law is important while navigating the system. We will answer your questions, guide you through application, and even stand with you in the event of an appeal. The bottom line is that we will fight for the benefits you may deserve. If you are considering filing for benefits, or if your claim has been denied and you are seeking representation, contact our firm today to get started. It won’t cost you a penny unless we win your case, and we have 7 proven and experienced SSI disability lawyers waiting to help you.

Question:

Answer: You can be approved for Social Security disability benefits within a few days of filing your claim or you can be filing claims and appeals for years and never get approved.

That’s the only accurate answer but it doesn’t tell you much, does it? Let me explain a bit.

First, you don’t want to be one of the people who gets approved within days of filing a claim for Social Security disability benefits because those folks are generally suffering from something truly devastating, such as terminal cancer or a stroke that leaves a person in a chronic, vegetative state.

Second, you also don’t want to be one of those who keeps getting denied again and again. Mostly, people who keep getting denied again and again, not just for two or three years but for five or six years or more, just have cases that are hard to win — weak cases — or they are people who keep running into bad luck with Social Security. It happens.

Let’s talk about people who have reasonable cases and who don’t run into bad luck at Social Security. Let’s talk about the various levels and your chances of success and the time frames:

• Initial — chance of success about 30%, length of time two to nine months
• Reconsideration — chance of success about 10%, length of time two to six months
• Hearing before Administrative Law Judge — chance of success about 60%, length of time six months to a year
• Appeals Council — chance of winning outright about 5%, chance of getting case sent back for new hearing, about 20%, length of time two months to two years

You can go beyond the Appeals Council to United States District Court but let’s limit this to Social Security.

You should also be aware that you may have to go through this process more than once to finally win but, at least, you don’t have to wait for the Appeals Council to deny you before you start a new claim. Once a Social Security judge denies you, you can start a new claim, even as you appeal to the Appeals Council.

Question: How do I apply for Social Security disability?

Answer: There are several ways. You can:

• Do it online, as long as you don’t need to file a claim for Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the disability benefits that are available if you have low income and few resources. The online process is not as user friendly as you might like. I don’t recommend it that highly.
• Call Social Security’s at 1-800-772-1213 and schedule an appointment to file a claim. That is what I usually recommend. Accept that there may be some delay before you get to talk to a real person when you call that 800 number.
• Try to call your local Social Security office and schedule an appointment to file a claim. It’s almost impossible to get though to your local Social Security office on the phone. I don’t recommend this.
• Go to your local Social Security office in person and insist on filing the claim then and there. They are supposed to let you file the claim then and there but they’ll try to put you off with an appointment later. At best, you’ll probably spend a lot of time waiting. I don’t recommend this process.
• Contact us. We can help. You’re still going to have to talk with Social Security but we can help.

Any way that you do it, other than going to the Social Security field office and insisting on filing the claim then and there, you’re going to get a packet of papers in the mail that you must fill out and return to Social Security. Until you do this, you haven’t filed your claim.

A Complicated Explanation From NC DDS Website

Is your Social Security disability clam pending with Disability Determination Services NC? You’re not alone. At any given time Disability Determination Services NC is reviewing many thousands of Social Security disability claims. That’s right, thousands, maybe even tens of thousands, of cases pending at Disability Determination Services NC.

Disability Determination Services NC is an agency of the State of North Carolina, although they certainly don’t advertise this fact. They are working under contract with Social Security. This is pretty much the same way its done in all the states. Although Disability Determination Services NC is a state agency, this is of little consequence. The e-mail address for employees at Disability Determination Services NC an in the sssa.gov domain, for goodness sakes.

Disability Determination Services NC is composed mostly of “units” where disability examiners work. A “unit” is basically a group of disability examiners working with some support personnel under a supervisor. Disability Determination Services NC has physicians and psychologists on staff. They are supposed to review each case but the reviews are usually quite perfunctory.

The main fact that claimants need to know about Disability Determination Services NC is that, while its employees are not your enemies, the process is set up to mostly deny claims. To oversimplify only slightly, if a disability examiner at Disability Determination Services NC wants to deny your disability claim, it’s very easy. Probably, no one else will take a serious look at your case or say anything to the disability examiner even if the denial makes little sense. On the other hand, if the disability examiner wants to allow you, that decision is going to be carefully reviewed at least twice by people who seem to be looking to find fault with allowances. They can send the case back to the examiner. Too many cases get sent back to the examiner and the examiner gets in trouble. Does that system sound a bit slanted?

In the end Disability Determination Services NC allows about 30% of claims at the initial level and about 11% at reconsideration. Cases that go on to a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) are approved about 60% of the time.

Answer: Yes, but not so that you’re likely to  notice.

When you get to early retirement age (62), nothing at all happens. When you get to full retirement age, currently 66, you are automatically changed (meaning there’s nothing you need to do) from receiving disability benefits to receiving retirement benefits but the amount paid stays the same. If you looked very closely at your check, if you receive a check instead of a direct deposit, you’d notice some different codes on it. You’d see “RSI” on it somewhere. “RSI” stands for the “Retirement and Survivors Insurance” trust fund out of which your benefits are paid after getting to full retirement age. There is a separate disability trust fund.

The only situation I can imagine where the amount of benefits would change upon achieving full retirement age would be if your disability benefits had been reduced due to a workers compensation offset. That offset would end once you were switched over to retirement benefits. That would be an unusual situation.

By the way, the answer I’m giving you is better than the answer at Social Security’s own website. They didn’t think of the workers compensation issue!

Question: Do I have to claim my son’s Social Security disability money on my taxes?

Answer: No, you do not claim your son’s Social Security disability money on your taxes. I’m assuming that the person asking the question is on Social Security disability benefits and his or her son is drawing dependent benefits from Social Security. In this situation, the money is taxed to the child, not the father or mother. If the child had significant other income, he would have to include the Social Security dependent benefits on his tax return but that would be an unusual situation. Social Security will provide the child with his own 1099, separate from the parent on benefits.

What's the difference?

Social Security Disability Insurance is different than Supplemental Security Income (SSI).  When first considering to apply for disability benefits, these are two terms that you will come by often.  Some people qualify for both and others only qualify for one or the other.

It is best explained by the Social Security Administration.

The Social Security and Supplemental Security Income disability programs are the largest of several Federal programs that provide assistance to people with disabilities. While these two programs are different in many ways, both are administered by the Social Security Administration and only individuals who have a disability and meet medical criteria may qualify for benefits under either program.

• Social Security Disability Insurance pays benefits to you and certain members of your family if you are “insured,” meaning that you worked long enough and paid Social Security taxes.
• Supplemental Security Income pays benefits based on financial need.

via Benefits for People with Disabilities.

There you have it.  The benefits you receive are dependent upon many factors.  If you need help deciding which program(s) to apply for, give us a call at 1-877-287-1113 and we will be happy to answer all of the questions you may have about Social Security Disability Insurance and SSI.

Do I have to tell my employer I am on Social Security disability? There is nothing in federal law that I can think of that would require one to tell an employer that one is drawing Social Security disability benefits. You may, as a practical matter, have to tell the employer when you are applying for a job, in order to explain why you have been out of work. (I can tell you as an employer that gaps in a work record raise a big red flag.)

However, if you return to work while on Social Security disability benefits, you definitely need to notify Social Security! When you notify Social Security, you should receive a written acknowledgment that you have reported the return to work. If you do not receive a written acknowledgment, you should keep contacting Social Security and demanding that written acknowledgment until it comes in.

If you do not report a return to work, or if you do not receive a written receipt of your report of return to work, you’re likely to end up with an overpayment at Social Security. There is even a chance of criminal prosecution if you fail to report a return to work.

Remember, Social Security has no problem with you returning to work after going on Social Security disability benefits. That’s perfectly legal — AS LONG AS YOU NOTIFY SOCIAL SECURITY! You only get into trouble if you don’t notify Social Security. Efforts to hide your return to work, such as using a bogus Social Security number or working under the table, are potentially criminal.

You can keep drawing full disability benefits (other than SSI) for a year after going back to work. That’s right, I said full disability benefits for a year after returning to work. That’s not a bad deal. Just make sure you tell them that you’ve returned to work. And, if it turns out that you can’t work for a full year, your benefits continue. That time working would count against you if you make another attempt to return to work. There’s even some incentives to return to work if you’re on SSI.

Checking on the status of your Social Security disability application depends upon the stage that the case has reached. Here are some guidelines, although you may find them confusing:

• If you are still in the process of filing your claim: Call your local Social Security field office. You can find their phone number in the book. However, it is almost impossible to get through. There are back door numbers but I can’t disclose those without getting in trouble with Social Security! You can call Social Security’s toll free number –1-800-772-1213 but be careful. You can’t always rely on what they tell you when you call that number!
• You have filed your claim and it has been sent to Disability Determination Services: If you are in NC, call the number on the paperwork you receive. Until you get that paperwork, contact the Social Security field office, as above.
• You have been denied at initial and reconsideration and have asked for a hearing: Call the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) that has your case. That number will be on the paperwork you receive. Until you get that paperwork, contact the Social Security field office, as above.
• You have been denied by an Administrative Law Judge and have asked for Appeals Council review: Call the Appeals Council at 1-703-605-8000.
• You have been approved and are awaiting payment of benefits: This gets complicated. Without giving more information than you probably want or can process, I would suggest contacting your local field office. They do process SSI claims and should be able to tell you about the status of other Social Security disability claims.

The weak link here, as you’ve already figured out is the Social Security field office. I don’t have any good suggestions. It can be hard getting through to them even when you know the back door phone numbers. Knowing who to call and how to get through to them is a significant part of what we do at the Charles T Hall Law Firm.  It shouldn’t be that hard to get through to them, but it is. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already experienced that.

In a sense, it is simple. Knowing how to prepare a Social Security disability claim is important. You prepare to file a Social Security disability claim by contacting Social Security to set up an appointment to file the claim. While you are waiting for that appointment to come up, you ought to be gathering a list of the medical providers you have had since you became disabled. You need that names, addresses and phone numbers. Social Security is going to want this information. If you have it handy, you avoid delay and confusion.

But knowing how to prepare a Social Security disability claim gets you only so far. This isn’t a test where you get a gold sticker for neatness. Social Security approves plenty of disability claims filed by people who are very confused. Social Security denies a lot of disability claims that are filed in apple pie order.

There aren’t simple tips that assure a good result on your Social Security disability claim. The process is more complicated than that. That’s why you need a lawyer.

How much money can you make when on Social Security disability? The answer is that you can make as much as you want. Making that money may have consequences for your Social Security disability benefits but there’s nothing illegal about making money when on Social Security disability benefits.

To give a fuller answer to the question, let’s first talk about two basic types of Social Security benefits. There is Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and there are various other types of Social Security disability benefits based upon someone’s earnings. I hate to use a technical term but I think I’ll have to. The non-SSI benefits are Title II benefits because they fall under Title II of the Social Security Act.

SSI is a needs-based program. You have to have a low income and low resources in order to get SSI disability benefits. Income from any source, including work, gifts, lottery winnings, you name it, reduce SSI. Work is treated a little more favorably but, still, it does not take that much in the way of earnings to cut off your SSI disability benefits. You get little benefit from Social Security’s work incentives if you’re on SSI.

If you’re on Title II disability benefits there is what is called the Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) amount. For 2011, the SGA amount is $1,000 a month. I cringe as I write this since I know how easy it is for people to be confused by the SGA amount. Here are a few examples:

• The SGA amount is gross earnings, before taxes. You can have a lot less than $1,000 a month is take home pay and still be over SGA.
• If you are paid on a weekly basis, there are sometimes five paychecks in a month. If you are paid every two weeks, sometimes there are three paychecks in a month. These months can easily put you over SGA.
• Your employer asks you to work an extra day or two. It can’t be that big a deal. It’s only a small amount of money. But it puts you over SGA and consequences flow.

The bottom line is to be very, very careful about the SGA amount, or perhaps, to ignore it altogether and just earn as much as you can. Accept that after a year of work, that your Social Security disability benefits will be suspended because of the work.

In any case, it is crucial that you notify Social Security about ANY return to work. It doesn’t matter if you’re under SGA. You must notify them and you should get a receipt for your report of return to work. Report the return to work and things will go smoothly regardless of how much you earn. Don’t notify Social Security and there will be problems, perhaps very unpleasant problems. The worst case would be a criminal prosecution.

Question: Can you get Social Security disability for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

Answer: Yes, it is possible to get Social Security disability for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Some people have the terrible misfortune of suffering stress that changes them permanently. The lasting effects of combat are well known but there are many ways that civilians encounter such terrible stress. It may be as a result of being in an automobile wreck or being the victim of a violent criminal assault. It may be as a result of childhood sexual abuse. Whatever the underlying cause, it is the severity of the effect that is an issue in a Social Security disability claim.

To win a PTSD case, it is important that a Social Security disability claimant be in psychiatric treatment. If you are not in psychiatric treatment, Social Security’s unspoken question will be “If you have such a terrible psychiatric disorder, why don’t you see a psychiatrist?” Yes, you can get treatment even if you have no money or health care coverage. Indigent psychiatric care is very much available in North Carolina.

Avoiding substance abuse — alcoholism and drug abuse — is important in any psychiatric case. Social Security is likely to blame any psychiatric problems you have on drugs or alcohol if you give them half a chance. This isn’t something you can talk you way out of. Get clean and stay clean.

Other psychiatric disorders, such as bipolar disorder or depression or panic attacks, can be important in PTSD cases. These other psychiatric problems often help in proving disability.

Question: Can you get Social Security disability if you lose an arm or a leg?

Answer: Maybe,  but there’s no guarantee.

If we are talking about the loss of a leg due to trauma — that is some sort of accident, probably you won’t get Social Security disability unless there’s some extra problem, such as severe pain in the aftermath of the injury — and that happens to some people after they lose a leg — or trouble wearing a prosthesis.  Most people do pretty well with a prosthesis after leg amputation, better than you might think. We don’t see many people filing disability claims based upon a leg amputation due to trauma.

If we are talking about the loss of part of a leg due to diabetes, it’s a different matter. Diabetes that has damaged a person to the point that they lose part of a leg is a serious matter. Claimants in this situation usually fare well with Social Security disability claims.

Your chances of getting on Social Security disability due to an arm amputations may vary depending upon your age. If you are 50 or older, your chances are better. Certainly, if you have a pain problem in the wake of an arm amputation, you will have a good chance of being approved.

In any case, people who have had an amputation often have other health problems. These other health problems, when added to their amputation may be enough to prove disability.

“Do I have to pay taxes on Social Security disability?” is a question that comes up regularly with new clients.

The answer is “it depends.” The IRS gives the requirements here: via Regular & Disability Benefits. The base requirements are listed below:

• $25,000 if you are single, head of household, qualifying widow(er) or married filing separately living apart from your spouse at any time during the tax year.
• $32,000 if you are married filing jointly.
• $-0- if you are married filing separately living with your spouse at any time during the tax year.

In simplest terms, if you have more than $25,000 (for single filers) in income to report on your 1040, you may have to pay taxes on Social Security disability benefits. The IRS publication that addresses this is found here: http://www.irs.gov/publications/p915/index.html.

It is advisable to consult with a tax professional regarding your specific tax information, even on questions as simple as “Do I have to pay taxes on Social Security disability?”.

Let me be brutally honest. Not everyone who contacts us about a Social Security disability claim has a realistic chance of being approved by Social Security. We don’t take every Social Security disability case. We take only the ones that seem to us to have a realistic chance of being approved.

This is essential for us. If we took the case of everyone who contacted us, we would be overwhelmed with hopeless cases and could not stay in business.

The good thing about this is that if we take on your case, you know that someone who knows something about Social Security thinks you have a realistic chance of being approved. This doesn’t guarantee that you’ll win but it does mean that you’re not just wasting your time.

The bad thing about this is that our evaluations of what cases have a realistic chance of being approved is not perfect. If we don’t want your case, it’s not a good sign but you shouldn’t treat it as the end of the road. Talk with another attorney. You may have to talk to two or three others but the odds are that you’ll eventually find one to help you.

For that matter, if some other attorney has turned you away, call us. We’ll be happy to talk with you. Even if some other attorney originally took your case and later turned you away (and that’s something we rarely do), call us. I’ve scratched my head over plenty of strong cases that I know some other attorney didn’t want.  Sometimes,  I cannot see why that other attorney didn’t want the case.

If you live in Fayetteville , NC, or Hope Mills, NC in Cumberland County, I am the Fayetteville Social Security disability attorney at our firm who will handle your case. Your hearing will be held at the brand new Fayetteville Hearing office at 150 Rowan St.  which is directly across from the Social Security District Office at 145 Rowan Street.  This is only a few blocks away from the public library on Maiden Lane, Festival Park and the beautiful, revitalized

Fayetteville is a city rich in military history and home to Ft. Bragg, The Airborne and Special Operations Museum, and thousands of soldiers and their families who sacrifice daily for the good of our nation.  I lived in Fayetteville for 8 years while my husband was stationed at Ft. Bragg with the 82nd Airborne Division.  Although my primary office is located in Raleigh, I travel to our Fayetteville office several times a week to meet with my clients and attend their hearings.

I know that people in Fayetteville, particularly wounded warriors and veterans, are struggling with their medical issues and need help with disability claims. At our law firm we handle Social Security disability claims only.  I believe by focusing all our time and effort on Social Security Disability cases we are providing our clients with comprehensive and experienced representation.  I have been a licensed attorney in North Carolina for 10 years and previously represented clients at Legal Aid of North Carolina in Fayetteville.

Below are some tips on what to do if you need assistance with or information about Social Security disability claims. First and foremost, call us at 1-877-287-1113 if you have any questions.  Our office can send you information about Social Security disability and there is information on our website about how to file a claim.  Next, if you file a claim in person, the local Social Security office is at 145 Rowan Street in Fayetteville.  Whether you file your claim in person, via phone or over the internet, when you file your claim you will need this information.

If you become my client, I will meet you in Fayetteville as soon as possible after you become a client. It is my goal to meet with you in person at least twice as you go through the application and appeals process. My legal assistants Wendy Hardesty and Laura Hunt work hard to stay in contact with you as well to make sure your questions are answered in a timely manner.  Your file will be more complete if you help us by keeping in touch with us to let us know if you go anywhere new for treatment, take any new medication, or have any new diagnoses.

If you are disabled and live in Fayetteville or Hope Mills, NC, in Cumberland County and you choose the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, I look forward to meeting you and doing the very best I can to help you obtain your disability benefits.

Question: Why doesn’t Social Security answer its phones?

Answer: You’re probably asking this because you’ve tried to get through to your local Social Security office.  Maybe you used Social Security’s 800 number to make an appointment with someone at your local Social Security office and you talked with them in person or over the phone but then you need to call that person again? You found it almost impossible to get anyone to answer the phone. The problem is lack of personnel. Your local Social Security office is overwhelmed with people who called Social Security’s 800 number and made appointments to deal with a real person. The office doesn’t have time to answer their own phones.

I won’t lie. The local Social Security offices have secret backdoor telephone numbers. We have those numbers so we can usually get through to them. I say usually since sometimes they don’t even answer the backdoor phone numbers. We really can’t give out those numbers since they would stop giving us those numbers if we did.

This doesn’t sound fair does it? It’s not. I wish they had enough warm bodies to do all they need to do but they don’t. It’s not lazy employees to blame. It’s lack of adequate funding for Social Security. It’s not getting better. It’s getting worse.  There’s a hiring freeze on at the moment.

“Limbic encephalitis is inflammation affecting a region of the brain known as the limbic system, which controls emotions, behaviors and certain memory functions. People with this disorder may experience personality changes or mood disturbances, memory loss, seizures, hallucinations, or sleep disturbances.”

via Paraneoplastic syndromes of the nervous system: Symptoms – MayoClinic.com.

Limbic Encephalopathy is usually caused by one of two things: a virus or a autoimmune response. Onset of symptoms usually occur relatively soon after coming into contact with a virus or if the person’s immune system itself is the culprit.

Individuals with limbic encephalopathy can undergo severe changes, including involuntary movements, abnormal gait, child-like posturing and bizarre speech patterns. In addition the individual may have to participate in extensive rehabilitation for posture, speech, toileting, writing, balance and other deficits.  Neuropsychological testing is a necessity.

In a disability case, a person with limbic encephalopathy will be evaluated under 12.02 Organic Mental Disorders found here: via 12.00-Mental Disorders-Adult.

As with all claims for disability benefits, the claimant must show that they are incapable of working due to their impairments. Claimants with limbic encephalopathy may have a long road ahead of them for recovery. During this recovery, based on their symptoms, working may be out of the question.

To receive a free case evaluation, contact us at 1-877-287-1113 or fill out the Free Review form to your right. We are here to represent you throughout the Social Security Disability process.

I hear it a lot,  “I’ll try not to cry at my Social Security disability hearing.” I have clients who do cry at their hearing who come out and start apologizing for crying.

Don’t worry yourself in the least about it. If you cry, you cry. From my point of view, it’s no big deal.  You’re under a huge amount of stress. You’re depressed. You’ve never been to one of these hearings before. You’ve been both looking forward to and dreading this hearing for months. With all this going on, it’s no surprise that a lot of claimants start crying during their Social Security disability hearing. It happens all the time! Clients cry at their Social Security disability hearings not because someone is being mean to them or because the hearing itself is such an ordeal. They cry because they’re under a lot of stress.  That’s why there will be a box of tissue on the table in front of you. A few tears won’t make the judge or me mad. It’s all part of a day’s work for us.

Question:

Answer: No. That is considered unethical. An attorney can lose his or her license for making a loan to a client. The reason is that it is considered to be paying to get a case.

There are also practical considerations. I would quickly be bankrupt if I started making loans to my clients.

I know you’re having a tough time but I just can’t do it.

Are there any Social Security disability secrets? Is there some magic formula that will guarantee that your case will be approved? No, there isn’t. In the end, the following factors matter and none of them is a secret:

• Can you get your claim for disability benefits filed? They’re not going to give you the disability benefits unless you file a claim.
• If you get turned down by Social Security are you going to give up or file an appeal?
• Are you going to stick with your disability case or get frustrated and give up?
• Are you going to hire an attorney to represent you?
• How sick are you?
• How old are you? That matters a lot to Social Security.
• What kind of work did you do in the past?
• Does Social Security know all that’s wrong with you?
• Does Social Security have all of your relevant medical records?
• Is your case being adequately framed and presented? You may want to talk about your bad back but your attorney may want you talking your depression,  a subject you don’t like talking about.
• If you have an attorney, does that attorney have a good idea where he or she is going with the case when you go into a hearing?
• Does Social Security know what your doctors think about your disability claim?
• Who is deciding upon your case? Yes, Social Security’s judges are unique individuals and it can matter which one you draw.
• If you have a hearing, is your testimony being presented in a way that allows the judge to understand what’s wrong with you and why you’re not working?

Question:

Answer: Social Security’s answer to this question is that they could not get enough information from your doctors to make a decision. Usually, this answer is accurate. Many of the people Social Security sends out for what they call a consultative examination are receiving little or no medical care. Social Security could just deny these claims but they make an effort to get some information about them in the only way they can.

We hear that sometimes overworked disability examiners send Social Security claimants out for a consultative exam because they are looking for a way to delay doing anything with the case because they’re so swamped. Rarely, an Administrative Law Judge sends a claimant out for a consultative examination because they don’t like the opinion they are receiving from the treating physician.

Consultative examinations usually neither help nor hurt a disability claim. They are usually pretty worthless. The physician sees the claimant only once and lacks authority to order all the tests that might be needed to properly evaluate the claimant. Consultative examiners usually aren’t all that highly motivated to do a really thorough exam or write up a good report. Usually, these reports only tell you what you could already figure out from whatever scanty records were available.

Depression is bad enough.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we see lots of clients who have depression with anxiety. We see them because Social Security usually denies their disability claims at the initial and reconsideration levels. Don’t be dejected if this happens to you. We win many depression with anxiety cases at the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) level.

I would not say that Social Security has any policies directed specifically at patients who have depression with anxiety. They just have general policies designed to make it tough to get a quick win on a disability claim based upon any form of mental illness and those policies make it tough for people who have depression with anxiety.

In general, there are three things you can do to help win Social Security disability based upon depression with anxiety:

• Get under psychiatric care and stay under psychiatric care. If your depression with anxiety is so bad that you can’t work, why wouldn’t you be under psychiatric care.
• Avoid substance abuse. Alcoholism and drug abuse make it tougher to win any Social Security disability case, particularly one based upon mental illness such as depression with anxiety.
• Hire a lawyer to represent you. Even if you had some illness other than depression with anxiety you should probably hire a lawyer. Depression with anxiety makes it harder to make decisions and to figure out what to do.

Contact the Charles T. Hall Law Firm for a free consultation.

When you’re looking for a Social Security Disability

I and other attorneys working with me have been representing Social Security disability Cumberland County NC clients since 1979.  Over the years we’ve represented over 3,000 clients in Cumberland County. We must have been doing something right to attract that many clients in one moderately sized county.

In representing Social Security disability clients in Cumberland County, NC we have become familiar with some of the local conditions. We know the county from Linden to Hope Mills and from Spring Lake to Stedman.  We’re familiar with the local medical sources — the hospitals and many of the doctors. We know about the local sources of free or low cost medical care. There’s less than there used to be but there’s still some. We’re familiar with many of the local employers — Kelly Springfield, in particular. We know about the special issues with veterans and with service members who are in medical holding company. Did you realize that it is possible to apply for and receive Social Security disability benefits while still in medical holding company or while on TDRL?

If you need help with Social Security disability in Cumberland County, NC, contact the Charles T. Hall Law Firm.

Social Security Benefits for Disability are just one type of benefit that the Social Security Administration offers. Retirement benefits, dependents benefits, survivors benefits, and disability benefits are the main types of Social Security benefits available to eligible citizens. There are even several different types of Social Security benefits for disability alone.  The two that are most common are Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

The Social Security Administration describes types of Social Security benefits for disability as follows:

• Disabled worker—beneficiary who worked in covered employment long enough to be insured and who had been working recently in covered employment prior to disability onset
• Spouse of disabled worker—must either (1) have a child under age 16 or a disabled child in his or her care, or (2) be at least 62 years old; applies also to divorced spouse if the marriage lasted at least 10 years
• Child of disabled worker—see 3 types of child benefits below

via Types of Benefits.

There is a lot of information to navigate through when you are considering the option of filing a disability claim. Here at the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we can help you with your questions, represent you at hearings, and guide you on the path to reach the best possible outcome.

We only work in Social Security disability law – that’s it. Other firms try to “do it all”, but we solely keep our eyes on Social Security disability law. We love what we do and are dedicated to help our clients obtain Social Security Benefits for Disability.

When it comes to Social Security disability you have to wonder what is bipolar I doing on Social Security’s hit list? Social Security turns down lots and lots of people with bipolar I disorder. Our law firm represents more clients with bipolar disorder (I and II) than any other disease. Partly, it’s because there are a lot of people who have bipolar disorder. Mostly, it’s because Social Security just about never approves claims based upon either bipolar I or II without a fight. There’s no need to be paranoid about it but if you have bipolar disorder and can’t work, Social Security isn’t your friend. You’re in a fight and you’re going to need help.

We can help. We know what is bipolar I. We know how to help those with this disease get on the Social Security disability benefits they need. Contact us today.

At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm we like to think that “Social Security Disability NC” is us or are us. We’re pretty sure that we represent more Social Security disability claimants in NC than any other law firm. We have seven attorneys representing Social Security disability claimants full-time.

If you have a “Social Security disability NC” problem, we can probably help. You can call us or send us a message via this website. You can even walk in the door if you want! Every month we take in over 100 new cases. We see every sort of disability claim. We’ve probably represented someone with a case like yours.

You may wonder how you can afford a lawyer for your “Social Security disability NC” case. It’s easy. Normally, you pay a fee only if we win. Our fee is normally one-quarter of your back benefits. There are a few odd exceptions. That’s why I say “usually” but these exceptions usually apply only to oddball cases such as overpayments where we are trying to get Social Security to waive an overpayment. There’s no back benefits in these cases so we have to charge upfront.

Be careful when you have a “Social Security disability NC” case. Hire someone who will meet with you in person. Many people who try to represent Social Security disability claimants try to cut corners by avoiding any meeting with a client until the day of the hearing. That’s not what you want for your case.

Bipolar disorder II is a common basis for Social Security disability claims. At the Charles T. Hall Law Firm, we see a lot of these cases, perhaps as many as we see of any disease. Typically, Social Security denies these cases at the initial and reconsideration levels but, with help, the claimant stands a good chance of winning once the case is heard by an Administrative Law Judge.

There are some things you can do to help your chances of winning Social Security disability benefits based upon bipolar II disorder. First, get under psychiatric care and stay under regular psychiatric care for your bipolar II disorder. If you’re not under psychiatric care, Social Security won’t say it but they’ll think “If he or she has such a bad problem with bipolar disorder II, why isn’t he or she under psychiatric care?” You don’t want Social Security thinking about that question. You can get and stay under psychiatric care for bipolar disorder II even with no money. Contact us and we’ll talk with you about it.

Second, avoid substance abuse. Substance abuse makes your bipolar disorder II much harder to treat, much harder to live with, and it makes it much tougher to win a Social Security disability claim. Don’t get too discouraged if you have some history of substance abuse. If you’ll just stay clean now, you’ll be in much better shape on your Social Security disability claim. Don’t think that you can keep Social Security in the dark about your substance abuse. Social Security will get the medical records about your bipolar disorder II. If you’re abusing alcohol or drugs, it’s going to be all over your medical records.

Third, admit to yourself that you’re going to need some help with your Social Security disability claim. It’s tough enough without suffering from bipolar disorder II but with a chronic psychiatric disorder it’s almost impossible to effectively pursue a Social Security disability claim.

We are often contacted by people who wonder how to apply for SSI disability benefits. I can tell you how to apply for SSI disability benefits easily enough. You call Social Security and set up an appointment to file the claim. You can’t file an SSI claim over the internet. Your appointment will almost certainly be over the telephone. They will ask some questions, most of them fairly simple ones. They will send you some paperwork to complete and return. Most people find the paperwork to be not all that difficult but some people have trouble with it.

OK, I’ve told you how to apply for SSI disability benefits. You have to contact Social Security, which you already knew. Filing the claim isn’t that hard but, frankly, you probably already knew that too. But you’re holding back, worried about taking that next step, seeking more information. Let me give you a little reassurance.

• If you change your mind later, you can always drop your claim.
• If you get better later, you can always drop your claim.
• You can always go back to work later even once you get on SSI. You just have to let Social Security know. There’s no problem with them if you go back to work. They’re quite happy for you to go back to work. They may cut back your benefits but you’re not in the least bit of trouble as long as you don’t hide the fact that you’ve gone back to work.
• Nobody is going to know that you’ve filed for SSI disability benefits other than your doctors’ offices unless you tell them. And who would care anyway? There’s nothing shameful about being disabled. You didn’t ask for your health problems.

Need more help and reassurance: Contact us. We know the Social Security ropes. We certainly know how to apply for SSI disability benefits.

Are you thinking about filing a North Carolina disability application? Here are some of the things that people think about when they’re facing this issue:

• Do I really need to file a North Carolina disability application with Social Security? I could get better. Yes, you could get better but maybe you won’t . You have to plan for the worst. You can always drop the Social Security disability claim. You can’t make up for the lost time while you keep hoping you’ll get better.
• How do I file a North Carolina disability application with Social Security disability? Contact us. We can help you. If you want to start out on your own, call Social Security and schedule an appointment to file the claim.
• What do I need to do before I contact you about filing a North Carolina disability application for Social Security? Nothing. You don’t have to be certain what you want to do to contact us. You can always change your mind later, although you probably shouldn’t.
• What do I need to do before I file a North Carolina disability application for Social Security benefits? Nothing. Just do it. You can always change your mind later, although you probably shouldn’t.
• How long will it take to get on Social Security disability? It could happen in a couple of months. It could take a couple of years. You may never get on Social Security disability. The fact it can take a long time is a good reason to get going now!
• How much will I get from Social Security? I can’t say. It depends upon how much, if any, you have worked in the past. Whatever it is, it’s income you don’t have now, income you probably need.

There’s a lot that people think about when they are considering filing a North Carolina disability application with Social Security. If anything, many people spend a lot of time thinking when they should be doing. The sooner you get moving, the better.

Retinal neuropathy, also known as “retinopathy,” can also affect individuals with diabetes mellitus. Retinopathy is common with individuals suffering from diabetes because the human eye contains numerous small blood vessels. Because diabetes can seriously degrade the quality of blood flow throughout an individual’s body, the smallest vessels are often worst affected, particularly the farther they are from the heart. A common symptom of retinopathy is blurred vision. Unfortunately this is caused by small blood vessels hemorrhaging blood and blurring the image projected onto the retina in the eye. Retinopathy is generally manageable, but in serious cases can progress to blindness. Compliance with medical treatment is crucial to preventing the progression of both retinal neuropathy and peripheral neuropathy.

How do you qualify for SSI? The simple answer to the question is that you must have low income and low financial resources and you must be aged, blind or disabled. Aged means 65 or older. I’ve

I think the bigger thing that people want to know when they ask “How do you qualify for SSI?” is what is the secret, what do I need to know that guarantees a win? It’s probably not what you think. People often think that to win they must do an A+ job of completing Social Security’s paperwork. You can even see that some attorneys suggest this online. While it’s a good idea to give Social Security as much info as you can, this isn’t some school assignment. Don’t get hung up on this or you’ll never file your claim in the first place. It’s a guarantee that you’ll never get on SSI disability if you never file a claim!

The real answer to the question “How do you qualify for SSI?” is pretty simple. You have to file a claim, you have to have a case and you have to be persistent. Filing a claim should be obvious but it’s not to some people. Having a case means that there is proof that you are disabled. In most cases, this means that you’d better be under medical care. Many times I tell a client that a Social Security judge is going to be thinking about this sort of question, “If he’s so disabled by mental illness, why doesn’t he go see a psychatrist?” The judge will probably not ask the question but we’re rather not have the judge thinking about the question since we may not have a good answer to it. Being persistent means that you have to realize that it may take two years or more to get on SSI disability benefits. This may involve filing multiple appeals. That’s hard to do if you’re feeling bad.

If you really need to know the answer to the question “How do you qualify for SSI?” for your case, please contact us. We’ll be happy to talk with you.

The disability requirements in NC, that is the requirements to get Social Security disability benefits, are that one be disabled and have “something else.”

The definition of disability that is a part of the disability requirements in NC is that one be unable to engage in any substantial gainful activity by reason of any medically determinable physical or mental impairment that has lasted or can be expected to last for a continuous period of not less than 12 months or to result in death. The definition of disability goes on to say that it is not enough that one be unable to do past relevant work. One has to be unable to perform work that exists in significant numbers in the national economy considering one’s age, education and work experience.

Let’s go through this definition of disability that is part of the disability requirements in NC slowly. Here is what is required:

• You have to be unable to engage in employment. It’s not enough that you can’t find a job. You have to be unable to do a job even if you can find it. Many of my clients want to tell Social Security to consider the fact that no one will hire them. That doesn’t help because Social Security can’t consider it.
• What does that fancy term “substantial gainful activity mean”? It doesn’t mean that any little bit of work you do after you become disabled defeats your Social Security disability claim. It gets pretty complicated but this part of the definition of disability helps you.
• That “medically determinable” part of the definition of disability has always been a problem. How do you medically determine how much pain someone is in? There is no machine that measures pain. For that matter, there is no machine that measures weakness or mental illness or many other things that cause disability.
• At least the definition of disability talks about both physical and mental illness. Many people have both and both can be considered.
• The twelve month requirement means that if you break your leg and have to be out of work for six months you don’t get Social Security disability benefits. It must last 12 months, unless it’s going to kill you before that.
• Being unable to perform your old work isn’t enough — usually — to get you on Social Security disability benefits. You have to be unable to do other work — but they do have to consider your age, education and work experience. They pay a lot of attention to your age; the other factors, no so much.

I said that you have to be disabled and you have to have “something else” to meet the disability requirements in NC. Here are some examples of the “something else” and you only have to have one of these:

• You have worked a fair amount in recent years before becoming disabled.
• You have low income and few financial resources.
• You are a widow or widower of someone who worked a fair amount, you’re 50 or older and your late spouse died not that long ago.
• You became disabled before age 22 and one of your parents is on Social Security benefits or might be on them except he or she has died.

If you’re looking for someone who practices Social Security Administration law, you’ve come to the right place. That’s what we do at the Charles T. Hall Law Firm. We don’t handle bankruptcy or workers compensation. We won’t write a will for you, but we can represent you on your Social Security disability claim.

Why would you want to hire an attorney who just does Social Security Administration law? To get the experience, to get someone who is not distracted by other types of law. To get someone who tries to be familiar with all the little ins and outs of Social Security.

It’s your Social Security Administration Law case. You can shop around for someone to represent you. Just don’t go shopping too long. If you wait too long, you may be losing one month of benefits for each month that passes. If you wait too long, it may be too late to file your appeal and you’ll have to start over again from scratch. If you really wait too long, you may make it harder to win your case.

If you’re looking for someone to handle your Social Security Administration law case in NC, we figure you’ll keep hearing our name and there’s a good chance you’ll hire us.

The video above is a great example of the struggles that some people with polymyositis go through just to get a diagnosis of the disorder. The Mayo Clinic describes the signs and symptoms of polymyositis as follows:

Signs and symptoms of polymyositis usually appear gradually, so it may be difficult to pinpoint when they first started. They may also fluctuate from week to week or month to month.

Progressive muscle weakness is the most common polymyositis symptom. It typically affects the muscles closest to the trunk, such as those in your hips, thighs, shoulders, upper arms and neck. The weakness is symmetrical, affecting both the left and right sides of your body, and tends to gradually worsen.

Although the muscle weakness starts subtly, after it progresses over the course of the disease it can make it difficult for you to climb stairs, rise from a seated position, lift objects or reach overhead.

Other polymyositis signs and symptoms include:

Difficulty swallowing (dysphagia)

Difficulty speaking

Mild joint or muscle tenderness

Fatigue

Shortness of breath

via Polymyositis: Symptoms – MayoClinic.com.

If you are considering filing for Social Security disability benefits, please know that we have assisted many people who suffer from polymyositis win their SSDI and SSI disability claims.  Our experienced attorneys focus solely on Social Security Disability Law day in and day out.  If we can answer any questions for you, or if you would like a case evaluation at no cost to you, feel free to give us a call at 1-877-287-1113 or fill out the form to your right, and we will give you a call shortly.

We hope to be able to assist you as well. Remember, we have helped people with this diagnosis who suffer the many symptoms of polymyositis.

Know The Ropes

The U.S. Social Security Law was passed during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt. It has now been around more than 75 years. About one American in five receives some form of benefit under U.S. Social Security Law.

If you’re coming to this website, there’s a good chance that the part of U.S. Social Security Law that you’re interested in has to do with disability benefits. These disability benefits have not been around since the 1930s. They started during the late 1950s. You might think that Social Security disability is only a small part of what the Social Security Administration does but you would be wrong. Retirement cases are easy for Social Security. Disability cases are tough. Almost half of Social Security’s operating budget is spent of administering disability benefits.

There are actually seven types of disability benefits under U.S. Social Security law:

• Disability Insurance Benefits — based upon you own earnings
• Disabled Widows and Widowers benefits — based upon the earnings of a late spouse — must be at least 50 years of age.
• Disabled Adult Child benefits — based upon the earnings of a parent who is deceased or drawing Social Security benefits — must have become disabled before age 22.
• Blind benefits based upon one’s earnings. If you’re heard of “statutory blindness”, it’s because the Social Security Act defines it.
• Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits. Must have low income and low resources.
• SSI for disabled children. Disability means something different when you’re talking about children.
• SSI blind benefits.

If U.S. Social Security Law sounds complicated, it’s because it is. Hire someone who knows the ropes to help you.

• A. Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Name,
• B. Hearing Office Location,
• C. Total Dispositions per ALJ Across all Offices (Remember an ALJ may have worked or held hearings in more than one office.),
• D. Total Dispositions in this Hearing Office,
• E. Total Number of Awards,
• F. Number of Awards (That is decisions approving a disability claim.),
• G. Number of Denials,
• H. Number of Fully Favorable Decisions (That is decisions that fully approved a disability claim.), and
• I. Number of Partially Favorable Decisions (That is decisions that approve a disability claim but at a later date than alleged or which approve only a closed period of disability.).

Click on the picture to enlarge.

There is a Social Security Administrative Law Judge database. This allow you to look up the stats on each of Social Security’s Administrative Law Judges (ALJs). The image above shows the overall stats.

There are a few things you need to know in order to understand the Social Security Administrative Law Judge database. First, one abbreviation — ODAR. That means Office of Disability Adjudication and Review. That’s the part of Social Security where the ALJs work. Second, when an ALJ has worked in more than one ODAR office at Social Security, what he or she has done at each individual office is listed separately. Third, an award is a decision that award benefits but these awards are broken down into two subcategories, Fully Favorable and Partially Favorable. A partially favorable decision might find a disability claimant disabled but at a later date than he or she alleged, for instance.

You may want to look up some exceptional ALJs on the Social Security Administrative Law Judge database, so I’ll give you a few names:

• David Daugherty
• Gilbert Rodriguez
• Frederic McGrath

Don’t get hung up on low producing ALJs in the Social Security Administrative Law Judge database. These are probably ALJs who only worked for a part of the time period because they had just started work with Social Security or they retired or they were sick.

When I hear someone ask how to file for SSI, I am reminded of Paul Simon’s song, “There must be 50 ways to leave your lover.” Actually, there aren’t 50 way to file for SSI but the just like leaving a lover, the issue usually isn’t so much how to do it as it is mustering the courage to do it.

How to file for SSI is pretty simple — either you call Social Security and schedule an appointment — or you hire a lawyer to help you do it. You cannot file an SSI claim online. Yes, you can file other types of Social Security claims online but not SSI.