Disability Claims and How You Can Help Your Own Cause
While there isn't really any sure-fire strategy for winning a disability claim — there are some sure-fire ways to ensure that you won't win it. Social Security disability is governed by a legal process which is complex and your actions or statements can hurt your chances to win.
Milam Law helps people in California's Central Valleys obtain Social Security Disability (SSD) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. Our founding attorney, Jeffrey Milam, worked as an attorney-advisor to Social Security judges for more than seven years before starting this law practice. Today, 20 years and countless numbers of clients later, this is still the only work we, Milam Law, focuses only on Social Security disability law. Our clients have received over $600 million dollars of total benefits.
MilamLaw has learned about the fine line that separates successful claimants from those who are denied benefits.
The following suggestions can help you avoid costly mistakes:
- Get appropriate medical care and treatment for your condition. For instance, if you are suffering from severe depression, see a psychiatrist or psychologist or both. Tell them about every symptom you've experienced and every way in which you've been affected or limited by it. This will help the doctor do an accurate evaluation and create a record. Also, be sure to follow through on the doctor's treatment recommendations.
- Journal about your disability, the doctors you see, the medications you take and how your life has changed. This helps on an emotional level — providing you with an outlet for your feelings on these subjects. It helps on a practical level as well in that your journal records can be included in the evidence that goes in your claim file after we review it for you. This puts a human face on your claim for administrative personnel who often deal with nothing but paper all day long. Also, you can help your doctors understand your problem better by giving them a copy of your journal.
- Be careful about what you say to the SSA; they tend to misperceive things. Generally, you want to be short and to the point with anything you say or write to Social Security. Because the process is a legal one, Instead, consider hiring an experienced lawyer to handle your disability claim and manage those communications.
For a free consultation — call us at 877-822-1346 (toll free) or, contact us by e-mail. We also offer language translation and interpretation services for clients who find it easier to communicate in Spanish, Lao, Cambodian or Hmong.
