Welcome! This site is written for Social Security disability claimants, for their legal representatives, and for the network of people involved in the Social Security disability claim process. I hope you find it helpful.
Free Claim Review

A Social Security disability lawyer can assist you with your disability or SSI claim. Here are five ways an experienced disability lawyer can help:

1.  Develop a winning theory of your case.

The most important task for a lawyer is to develop a winning theory for your claim. This should be done as early as possible in the claim process. Based upon your age, your education, your impairments, your work history and the Social Security disability evaluation process, we will seek the legal path that leads to an award of benefits.

2.  Obtain the necessary evidence.

The key to winning a Social Security disability claim is proper development and presentation of medical evidence showing disability. We will work to develop the claim, and to obtain the medical evidence necessary to support your claim. In particular, we will strive to obtain opinions from your medical providers regarding your functional limitations.

We can help the Administrative Law Judge to understand your impairments, and why they prevent you from working.

3.  Keep your claim moving.

We will file your appeals, and help you complete Social Security’s forms. We will obtain your doctors’ treatment records, and will seek reports and opinions from your doctors concerning your medical condition, symptoms and functional limitations.

4.  Represent you at the hearing and in federal court.

We can assist you with each stage of your claim. We can help you with your initial claim, or with an appeal of a denied claim. We will represent you at the administrative hearing.

Prior to your hearing, I will explain the issues that are important to your claim, and will prepare you for your hearing testimony. I will prepare you for the questions that your specific judge is likely to ask. Since I limit my practice to Maine and New Hampshire, I see the same judges year after year, and each judge conducts a hearing a little bit differently.

When necessary, we can appeal your claim to the Appeals Council and to U.S. District Court.

5.  Ensure that you are paid correctly.

If your claim is approved, we will ensure that you are paid correctly.

There are three possible decisions for a Social Security disability claim: fully favorable, unfavorable, and partially favorable. A partially favorable decision grants part of a disability claim.

Occasionally, a partially favorable decision makes a determination that you were disabled for a period of time, but are no longer disabled and not entitled to ongoing benefits. This is essentially a closed period. 

Usually however, a partially favorable decision finds that you are currently disabled, but decides that you became disabled under SSA's rules sometime after your alleged onset date. You will receive ongoing disability benefits. However, a later onset date means a lesser amount of retroactive benefits than would have been paid with the original alleged onset date

This can be a big deal. I recently saw a partially favorable decision that used an onset date 17 months later than the alleged onset date. So while the client will receive ongoing benefits, 17 months of past benefits were left on the table. With a PIA of $800, that is $13,600.

The decision whether or not to appeal a partially favorable determination presents a dillemna for the claimant. If the appeal is successful, you will be found disabled as of your alleged onset date, and will recoup those lost benefits.

However, by appealing a partially favorable determination, you appeal the entire decision. This means that on appeal you could be found "not disabled," and would lose your entitlement to ongoing benefits. This does not usually happen, but it is a risk that must be considered.

There is a misconception that to be eligible for Social Security disability, you must be permanently disabled. I have heard this from clients, from doctors, and from vocational rehabilitation specialists.

For clients in particular, sometimes the thought of being permanently disabled can be a barrier to applying for disability benefits. People always hope they will get better, and don't see themselves as permanently disabled.

However, your disability does not need to be permanent. Rather, under Social Security's rules, the disability must last for a continuous period of 12 months or longer.

If you cannot work due to a mental or physical impairment, and that impairment has lasted – or is expected to last – for 12 months or longer, you should apply for Social Security disability benefits.

Social Security defines by regulation the “acceptable medical sources” that can establish your medically determinable impairments and their severity. Physicians and psychologists are of course included. So are optometrists (only for matters of visual acuity and visual fields) and podiatrists (only for impairments of the foot).

Notably, licensed clinical social workers, counselors and therapists are not included. This can pose a problem for the disability lawyer developing the claim.

The purpose of a medical source statement is to establish your work-related limitations. Your claim is stronger if the statement comes from an acceptable medical source, because it is more persuasive.

However, sometimes a statement from a “non-acceptable” medical source is all you are going to get, because that provider is the only person the client has been seeing for medical care. An opinion from a non-acceptable source may be persuasive evidence of the severity of your medical condition, and the limitations imposed by your condition. However, a non-acceptable source cannot establish a medically-determinable impairment.

A medical source statement is an opinion from your doctor regarding the nature and severity of your limitations due to your medically-determinable impairments. A medical source statement is often simply a form that is completed and signed by your doctor. The name derives from a section of the regulation describing medical opinion evidence.

The SSA must give controlling weight to a your treating doctor's opinion, if it is well supported by the evidence in the case record. This deference given to the medical source statement makes it very important for a claim.

Quite simply, a medical source statement is the most powerful evidence that a lawyer can develop for a Social Security disability claim. 

{update: here is the medical source statement (physical) form that I use in my practice}

A hearing memorandum is required at the Portland, Maine ODAR. Written by the claimant's representative, the hearing memorandum sets forth the background facts of the case, a description of the medical evidence, and (most importantly) a "theory of the case," with an analysis of the claim at each step of the sequential evaluation process.

The memorandum, which I write in the form of a letter to the judge, is typically filed 7 to 10 days ahead of the hearing. That way, it is in the record when the judge looks at the file to prepare for the hearing.

The hearing memorandum does more than educate the judge in advance of the hearing. Since the memorandum stays in the record, the judge can refer back to it after the hearing, when the representative's great opening statement has been long forgotten.

A hearing memorandum helps the lawyer as well. Writing the memorandum will give you an improved command of the evidence, and will help you to focus on the hearing issues. You will be better prepared for the hearing, and better able to illuminate for the judge the path to granting benefits.

The word is spreading. Judges from New Hampshire and Massachusetts conduct hearings in Maine from time to time, and have found the hearing memorandums to be helpful. Those judges are starting to request hearing memorandums for their own cases.

{update: Here is a sample hearing brief}

I have noticed concrete benefits for my Social Security disability law practice from this professional blog.

One unexpected benefit has been that the blog serves as a repository of legal knowledge for me. Legal blogmaster Kevin O'Keefe has mentioned this benefit, and he is correct. I actually find myself referring to my own blog for information.

For example, yesterday I needed a cite to the regulation regarding reopening a prior SSI claim. Well, I recently wrote about that issue, and the cite I needed was in that blog post. It was much quicker to look up the cite from the blog than to flip through the book searching for the specific regulation.

I never expected this blog to be so helpful to my everyday practice.

I had a Social Security disability hearing this week for a closed period case. A closed period means that the claimant was disabled for a period of time, but is not disabled on a continuing basis.

Usually, a closed period occurs because the claimant returns to work at the SGA level prior to the hearing date. Occasionally, a closed period occurs because the claimant's medical condition improves to the point where the claimant no longer meets the definition of disability. Either way, the closed period must last longer than 12 months to qualify for disability benefits.

I believe that judges tend to favor closed period cases, because the closed period resolves an essential credibility issue. If you were working before, and you are working now, then there was probably a good reason why you were unable to work during the disability period.

I think judges also are encouraged by the fact that a closed period means that the person will not be receiving disability benefits indefinitely.

Elizabeth Stakenborg recently wrote about the closed period of disability.

The reentitlement period is a safety net for Title II disability recipients who return to work. The reentitlement period begins at the end of the 9-month trial work period, and lasts for 36 months.

If you cannot continue working at the SGA level due to your disabling impairments during the 36-month rentitlement period, you do not have to go through the disability application process all over again. Rather, you just notify Social Security that you are unable to work, and they will restart your disability benefits right away. This safety net is intended to encourage you to test your ability to work.

There is no trial work or reentitlement period for SSI beneficiaries.

Gordon Gates is a Social Security disability lawyer. He represents clients with Social Security disability and SSI claims in Maine and New Hampshire.

An attorney licensed in Maine, Gordon is authorized to represent claimants before the Social Security Administration anywhere in the country. However, his disability practice is focused on the states of Maine and New Hampshire. His practice outside of the state of Maine is limited exclusively to representing claimants before the Social Security Administration.

Gordon attended Tulane University Law School, where he served as Senior Articles Editor of the Tulane Law Review and graduated magna cum laude. He was admitted to practice law in Maine in 1991. Since 2005, he has focused his practice on Social Security disability and SSI cases.

Gordon is a sustaining member of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives (NOSSCR), and is a member of the NOSSCR Technology Committee. He was a featured speaker at the Fall 2010 NOSSCR Conference in Chicago. He is also a member of the Maine State Bar Association and the York County Bar Association.

Gordon is the author of 10 steps to prepare for your Social Security disability hearing (link opens a pdf of the e-book)

Gordon handles claims at every level of the Social Security process. He assists clients with initial applications, with appeals of denied claims, and with hearings before an administrative law judge (ALJ). He has successfully appealed denied claims to the Social Security Appeals Council and to the U.S. District Court, District of Maine to have unfavorable ALJ decisions remanded for new hearings.

Gordon is married, a father of a daughter, and resides in Maine.

Contact Gordon Gates