Why Do I Need An SSDI Attorney At The Start Of The Claim?

When you file for Social Security Disability benefits, you will have to answer many questions from the Social Security Administration. This process seems straightforward, but sometimes the questions can be misleading, irrelevant, and depending on your answers, can result in you being denied for SSDI. In this video, Tulsa SSDI attorney Gayle Troutman explains the benefits of having an SSDI lawyer present throughout your entire SSDI application process.

Our Oklahoma law firm offers free evaluations of your case for prospective SSDI applicants, and if we agree to take on your case, you will not be required to pay any attorney fees until and unless we are successful in obtaining your benefits.

Video Transcription

When you’re doing it yourself, you don’t know what Social Security’s looking for. You don’t understand the rules, you don’t understand the questions and in fact, sometimes the questions they have on the forms aren’t the real questions. For example, one of the questions on the form says are you working? What does it mean to be working? There is a definition in the law as to what working means. And so, Social Security law depends on how much you earn. Sometimes there’s an offset of your expenses. You may have, you may be able to work, but you have to pay a lot of medical bills in order to have the medications you need in order to work. Well, the costs of those medications are subtracted from your income. If you don’t make a certain amount of money, you are not considered to be engaged in substantial gainful activity. So people can be working and still not be working under the definition of the law. But they don’t tell people that, and you’re at the office and they ask, “When did you last work?” and you worked for a month doing something and you say you did that. Well, you have to have done it about three months for it to count. They don’t tell you that. That’s why you need a lawyer, you need somebody who knows what they’re talking about and understands the consequences of the answers that you made. So there’s a problem because that’s where on the forms, the forms should not be incorrect but they are.

To have a free evaluation of your disability claim, call us at (918) 587-0050 or visit us at TroutmanLaw.com.