Social Security disability lawyers

What Social Security means by disabled

The definition is narrower than most people expect. Under 20 CFR 404.1505, disability means being unable to do any substantial gainful activity because of a medically determinable physical or mental impairment that is expected to result in death or has lasted, or is expected to last, at least 12 months.

In practice that means showing you cannot do the work you did before, and cannot do other work that exists in the national economy given your age, education, and work experience. A condition can be serious and genuine and still not meet that test, which is why the medical evidence has to address work, not only diagnosis.

SSDI and SSI are two different programs

Social Security Disability Insurance is based on your work history. To qualify you need enough Social Security earnings to be insured for disability, as described in 20 CFR 404.315. Supplemental Security Income is a separate program based on financial need.

SSDI also has a waiting period: benefits are not paid until you have been disabled for five full consecutive months, with limited exceptions. Knowing which program applies, and when the waiting period started, is part of the first conversation.

Most of the work happens on appeal

A denial is not the end of a claim. The Social Security review process runs in a set order, described in 20 CFR 404.900, and each step has its own deadline.

The first deadline is the one that catches people. A request for reconsideration must be filed within 60 days of receiving the denial notice, and Social Security treats the notice as received five days after the date printed on it unless you show otherwise. Each later decision comes with its own notice and its own deadline. Missing one generally means starting over.

When you also have a workers’ compensation claim

This is where Social Security disability meets the rest of the firm’s work. Someone hurt on the job can be receiving workers’ compensation and also apply for Social Security disability, and the two programs interact.

Louisiana addresses it directly. Under La. R.S. 23:1225(A), workers’ compensation benefits for permanent total disability are reduced when the person is also receiving federal disability benefits, but only to the extent the combined benefits would otherwise cause the federal benefit to be reduced. How that works out depends on which compensation benefit is being paid and on the numbers, which is exactly why the two claims should be looked at together rather than by two different offices.

A settlement of the compensation claim can affect the disability benefit as well, so it belongs in the same conversation. The firm’s Baton Rouge workers’ compensation page covers the compensation side in detail.

The medical record decides it here too

As with every claim this firm handles, the proof runs through the medical record. Consistent treatment matters, and so does a treating physician who records not only the diagnosis but what it stops you from doing: how long you can sit or stand, what you can lift, whether you can keep a regular schedule.

A file that says what is wrong but not what it prevents leaves room to conclude that some work is still possible. The same point comes up in serious injury claims, and the firm’s serious injuries page explains why.

How fees work in Social Security cases

Fees for representing someone before Social Security are regulated. Under 20 CFR 404.1720, a representative may charge only a fee Social Security authorizes, and the approved fee is paid out of past-due benefits.

Under the fee agreement process in 42 U.S.C. 406(a)(2)(A), the fee cannot exceed the lesser of 25 percent of past-due benefits or a dollar cap, which Social Security set at $9,200 effective November 30, 2024. The fee is discussed at the first meeting, before anything is signed.