IS THERE A FEE FOR DISABILITY REPRESENTATION?

Attorneys and other advocates who help individuals collect their Social Security disability (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits are entitled to a fee under federal law in some cases.  A fee can be charged if:
  1. The representative has been duly appointed in writing and a fee agreement has been signed (or a fee petition submitted),
  2. The claimant's claim has been approved,
  3. Back pay or retroactive pay has been collected by the claimant,
  4. The amount of the fee does not exceed the allowable maximum, and
  5. The reviewing judge has approved the Fee Agreement or Fee Petition. 
Most claimants are delighted to receive expert help with their Social Security disability or SSI claim and do not object to the rather modest fee they are charged if they win.  Those who object to the fee usually do not understand what is involved in winning a disability or SSI claim.
The representative will spend many hours preparing the claim.  If it is not approved on the application level (only about 30 percent are) - then the representative will have to prepare for an appeal and hearing.  This will involve many hours of additional preparation.  Not only is there a significant amount of time involved, the skills of the representative must be considered.  The advocate, attorney or representative, must know how to apply rules and regulations to your case.  (S)he must know what the rules of evidence are, how to develop a winning theory of the case, how to write a legal brief, and how to be an effective advocate during the hearing before a judge.

Being an affective Social Security disability representative is not merely a matter of riding to the hearing location and sitting through a one hour hearing.  Prior to the hearing, the successful representative will have spent countless hours in interviews, research, medical records, court rulings and studying the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) preparing for the hearing.  In addition, the representative's office staff may have spent more hours obtaining records, preparing documents and answering the claimant's questions. 

 All of this is done on contingency.  If the case is not successful, the attorney or representative has invested all of this work for no pay, making the service of a highly educated professional advocate one of the best bargains of the modern world.
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Afterword:  Most representatives are motivated by a combination of incentives of which fees are only part of the picture.  Most work to earn their living, as it should be, but choose their work because it also provides them with a sense of joy and fulfillment in helping deserving claimants to obtain benefits they need and truly deserve.  If an advocate isn't thrilled because he has helped someone, he is in the wrong profession.

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