Do you need representation?

Even people who feel certain they are disabled sometimes need help proving it. Sometimes a physician may have written a letter or filled out a form saying someone is totally disabled and cannot work, but the person is still denied benefits. This is usually because disability is not only a medical determination, but also a vocational one. It is unlikely your doctor is an expert on jobs in the national economy, and therefore Social Security takes the opinion as a piece of evidence to be weighed instead of the final word on the subject.

For example, a person’s Worker’s Compensation doctor may say her knee disability is permanent and stationary and she cannot return to her work as an electrician. The Social Security Administration may consider that even if she cannot do the same work she has done in the past which required crawling, she may be able to do a sedentary job that uses some of her skills or knowledge.

Attorneys are most useful in situations such as this, putting the medically supported limitations on a claimant’s functioning together with the vocational implications. We have many years of experience eliciting testimony from claimants, medical experts, and from vocational experts to show exactly how this medical-vocational crossover really renders a person disabled under Social Security’s rules.