“Can You Afford a Social Security Disability Attorney”
Tomasz Stasiuk May 15th, 2008
Nate Craig of Truth of the Matter Asserted has a great article on how easy Social Security makes it for you to hire and pay for an attorney in a Social Security case:
Social Security cases are paid on a contingency basis, which means that the attorney can only collect a fee when you are successful in winning your case. … Currently this amount is 25% of the claimant’s owed back benefit or $5,300, which ever is the least amount. … If you are not succesful, you owe the attorney nothing [and Social Security] will send the attorney’s fee directly to the attorney…
In my opinion, this is a great deal. Of course, you can take that with a grain of salt, since I make my living representing people on disability claims in Colorado.
If you win, you pay 25% of whatever back benefits you are owed. And, the attorney’s fees are capped at $5,300. If you do not win, you pay nothing — other than the attorney’s expenses in developing your case (usually between $100 and $200). Basically, you are simply reimbursing the attorney for any money the attorney spends in building your case. However, you are not paying the attorney for his or her time unless you win.
Can you imagine only paying a doctor if he makes you better, or only paying a mechanic if the squeak or rumble goes away? And then, you only pay after all the work has been completed — a year or more later?
That is the deal you get when you hire a Social Security attorney! The attorney invests his or her time in developing your case in the hope that he or she can win your case, and gets paid by Social Security out of the back benefits that you win.
In exchange, you get the help of someone who specializes in Social Security cases. This may be your first case, or you may have applied several times. But, wouldn’t you like to have the help of someone who has done hundreds of cases to be there beside you, guiding and helping you?
Read the rest of Nate’s article here.
