Hit a surprising milestone with my disability claim...

I was dead set against hiring a lawyer for my SSDI case, figured I could handle it myself and save the money. But after 8 months of waiting and getting denied twice, I finally caved and called a law firm in Fresno. Just hit my first approval milestone at the reconsideration level and I'm honestly shocked... they got me approved in 3 months. Has anyone else seen faster results after switching to a lawyer?

3 comments

3 Comments

jackson.matthew23h ago

You said "dead set against hiring a lawyer" - what finally pushed you over the edge to make that call after those two denials?

nora_walker5719h ago

Wow, Jackson is asking the real question here. Honestly, I was just tired of staring at that denial letter and feeling stuck, plus a friend who had been through it told me the paperwork demands just get worse the longer you wait. Once I saw that lawyers get paid out of backpay and don't charge upfront, it made the decision way easier since I wasn't losing anything by trying.

emery19919h ago

The thing that FINALLY pushed me was realizing how much paperwork I was missing. My second denial letter pointed out I didn't include a proper function report from my doctor, and by that point I had lost track of what files went where. A lawyer knows exactly what forms the SSA actually looks at versus what's just extra noise. They also handled all the back and forth with my medical providers, which saved me from chasing down records myself. That alone was worth the fee since I stopped making dumb mistakes like forgetting to list every single condition I had.