For many years I have written briefs for judges prior to hearings on disability claims. Since I have started writing short briefs for disability examiners at the initial or reconsideration level, I have won many more cases at the DDS levels of review.
I write short, one or two-page letters to the disability examiners, setting
New evidence for Social Security claims must be submitted 5 business days ahead of the hearing. See 20 CFR 404.935(a) and HALLEX I-2-5-13. With a typical weekend, that’s 7 days ahead of the hearing. Holidays, which are of course not business days, must be accounted for as well.
The upcoming Juneteenth National Independence Day
I recently had a disability case with a judge from the Albany hearing office. That judge sends out a letter 30 days before a scheduled hearing setting his expectations for evidence at the hearing. I really liked the letter. It is not standard practice for most judges to send a prehearing letter like this, at
Social Security published a final rule in today’s Federal Register, reducing the period for past relevant work (PRW) from 15 years to 5 years. The rule becomes effective June 8, 2024.
Step 4 of the disability sequential evaluation considers a person’s ability to perform their past relevant work (both as actually performed and as generally
The fee cap imposed by Social Security on the 25% Representative contingency fee for direct payment of successful disability claims will be raised from $7,200 to $9,200 this Fall. Here is the press release from Social Security.
Update: the fee cap will be raised effective November 30, 2024.
Social Security now provides a check sheet, in the form of an online fillable PDF, for on the records requests.
An “on the record” (OTR) request asks Social Security to grant your case on the record without a hearing. This request is for claims awaiting a hearing at the Office of Hearings Operations (OHO). On the
Each year, the Social Security Administration releases statistics about the disability and SSI programs in an easy-to-understand format, called the “waterfall” chart. The waterfall chart shows the percentage of claims approved and denied at the various levels of review.
The chart shows what claimants can expect, statistically, for their claim for Social Security disability benefits.
Social Security has added Initial and Reconsideration cases to its status report in Electronic Records Express (ERE).
Here is a screenshot:
The status report now allows a Representative to quickly determine whether or not they have been associated with a particular client’s disability claim file. Previously, we would have to try to access the claimant’s
New evidence for Social Security claims must be submitted 5 business days ahead of the hearing. See 20 CFR 404.935(a) and HALLEX I-2-5-13. With a typical weekend, that’s 7 days ahead of the hearing. Holidays, which are of course not business days, must be accounted for as well. So beware the 3-day holiday weekend.