Rant: Going through a lawyer vs doing it yourself for SSDI appeals

I spent like 6 months doing my own SSDI appeal in Phoenix and got denied twice. Switched to a disability lawyer from Allsup and they pushed it through in 3 months with a hearing. The difference was night and day - they knew exactly what to say to the ALJ and had all my medical records organized. Anyone else have better luck with a rep instead of going solo?

3 comments

3 Comments

amy_craig2826d ago

Oh man, I gotta respectfully disagree with you there. I actually had the opposite experience here in Tucson. My lawyer just sat on my case for almost a year and didn't really do anything special, just sent in the same paperwork I already had. I actually got denied twice with them and then finally got approved on my own (after a lot of crying and organizing, honestly).

aaronsullivan26d agoMost Upvoted

Three years ago I had a similar thing happen with my lawyer in Phoenix and honestly I think they just count on people giving up. @amy_craig28 you're totally right that sometimes doing it yourself after getting the hang of it can work better. I spent like four months just organizing every single doctor visit and test result into a binder with tabs and that seemed to help way more than whatever the lawyer was doing. It's wild how much of this process is just about persistence and having your records in order.

dixon.james26d ago

Wait, did @amy_craig28's lawyer really just sit on her case for a YEAR? That's CRAZY. It really seems like some lawyers treat this like an easy paycheck while others actually fight for you. With Allsup, they didn't just send in my old stuff, they completely reorganized everything and even got new medical records from doctors I'd forgotten about. The key difference for me was they had someone whose entire JOB is knowing what ALJs in Phoenix want to see. Doing it yourself, you're basically guessing at what the system wants, and that's why you end up going through two denials before figuring it out.