New York Social Security Disability, New Jersey Social Security Disability, New York Long Term Disability, New Jersey Long Term Disability

Below are our Success Stories from some of our Social Security cases.

L is a 55-year-old certified nursing assistant who had to stop working due to a variety of neck and back problems caused by injuries and arthritis. By the time she stopped working in September 2001, she was had just 3 months to prove she was disabled. Although she filed for Social Security Disability (SSD) and Supplemental Security income (SSI) on her own, she was denied by the Administration, who explained that while they noted that she had multiple impairments including pain and stiffness, she could still do her past work as a dietary aide. However, L had never been a dietary aide and, because of her age, education and work history, if she could not do the work that she had done for the past 15 years, she should have been found disabled. She came to us to file for a hearing. When we began to develop her claim, we realized that the main reason that she stopped working was due to symptoms of diabetes and that the doctor that had been treating her in a medical clinic before her date last insured never made the connection between her symptoms and that disease. We contacted her treating physician and showed him records from before her date last insured. Her new doctors recognized that her disabling symptoms were due to undiagnosed diabetes and explained in a letter how that could have interfered with her ability to work and complicated any treatment for her back and neck problems. When L appeared before the Administrative Law Judge in 2003, he immediately told her that based on the evidence from her new doctor, he was awarding her disability benefits all the way back to September 2001, before her date last insured.

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K was an ironworker who had undergone multiple back surgeries before coming to us. He was able to return to work at his physically demanding job after the first 2 procedures, but after three surgeries, he could no longer work at any kind of job and came to us for help obtaining Social Security Disability benefits. After a hearing in 1998, the Judge decided that while K had been disabled for about 14 months, his condition had improved enough for him to return to some kind of work. Based on that decision, K was awarded benefits for only that period. We disagreed and appealed the decision, at the same time filing a new application for ongoing benefits. K's second application was randomly assigned to the same Judge who this time approved ongoing benefits beginning at a date later than the benefits originally stopped. The only problem was that K was still short about 15 months of benefits due to the decision in the first case. We continued to appeal the first claim all the way to Federal Court where we won an order sending the case back to the hearing level for another hearing. When the case got to the hearing office, we had to insist that the case be assigned to the appropriate Judge who, after holding a third hearing, awarded K benefits to cover the 15 month period that had not previously been approved.

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P was a nurse's aide in a hospital. By 1992 she had suffered five mini-strokes and suffered from severe heart palpitations. By the time she came to us, she had filed for Social Security Disability benefits several times throughout the 1990s but was repeatedly denied. Following a hearing in 1999, P was denied by the Administrative Law Judge who concluded that she could do her past work, despite the fact that she had severe weakness on one side of her body and was easily fatigued due to her heart problems. On appeal, we were successful in getting P's case assigned to a different Judge from the one that had initially denied her claim. The new Judge stated at the hearing that there was no evidence to support a finding that P could do her past work. He concluded that P's disability had existed since 1990 and on that basis, P was awarded over $45,000 in retroactive benefits.

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M is a 56-year-old house painter with a seizure disorder who came to us after being denied twice for Disability benefits. After a hearing, M was denied by an Administrative Law Judge who failed to consider all of the evidence that had been presented to him. We appealed the judge's decision and at the same time we filed a new application for disability benefits for him. While waiting for his appeal to be resolved, M was awarded disability benefits on his second application. Since the second application showed disability from a later date, we continued to pursue his appeal. Five years after he filed for benefits, M had a new hearing where the judge, relying on our legal arguments and the extensive medical records that we were able to obtain, awarded M benefits back to the date he stopped working, nearly six years earlier.

Because we assisted our client in filing a second application while his first one was pending at the Appeals Council, we were able to assure that M would receive benefits for the future, even while waiting for a decision on his retroactive benefits.

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J was a former police captain and later a partner in a small business. Chronic back pain forced him to stop working while still in his 50is in and he came to us to file his application for benefits. The Judge misinterpreted statements made by his doctors to conclude that he was still working and to denied him benefits. We appealed the Judge's decision and a new hearing was ordered. The new Judge questioned J regarding his activities, found him to be completely credible and decided he was disabled from the original date claimed. His retroactive benefits alone totaled over $80,000!

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A is a 44-year-old former traffic officer for the city of New York. Following an on-the-job injury, A had to stop working and filed for workers compensation benefits. A went to another law firm for assistance to file her claim for Social Security Disability benefits. Following a denial at a hearing and then at the Appeals Council, A was told by the other law firm that if she wanted to appeal her case to Federal Court she would have to either find another attorney or appeal on her own. A appealed her case and the Federal Court Judge, finding that the Administrative Law Judge had made errors in his decision, sent the case back for a new hearing. When she received her remand, A came to us for assistance. After reviewing her case, we recognized that the only way that our client would have any likelihood of success was to make sure that the new judge had all of the facts, particularly those that related to A's psychological problems and chronic pain, issues that had been overlooked the last time the case was heard by a judge. At his second hearing the judge decided, upon reviewing the facts and our legal arguments that A had been disabled for the entire period since her injury, seven years previously.

In his case, she fought on her own for benefits and she retained other counsel to assist her on her claim. It was not until she retained us, though, that she was able to obtain all of the material necessary to establish her disability for problems that do not easily show in test results

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S was 31 years old when she injured her back at work in 1994. Her original attorneys asked us to appeal after they were unsuccessful at a hearing. We took the matter to Federal Court, arguing that a main component of her disability had never been considered. The Federal Court sent the case back, ordering a second hearing. Gathering records from the very beginning of the claim right to the time of the hearing enabled us to convince a new Judge that the claimant had been disabled since October 1995. This generated over $55,000 in retroactive benefits to S, who is still unable to work and continues to receive ongoing monthly payments.

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J lived in an apartment above a dry cleaning establishment. Due to continued exposure to the cleaning fumes, J developed multiple chemical sensitivities. Common elements in the environment affected her with symptoms including cognitive dysfunction, lack of coordination and depression. However Social Security was not looking at the whole picture and was evaluating the case as a claim for chronic fatigue syndrome. To make matters worse, the claimant moved and the file was misplaced when they were sending it to the office serving her new address. We were able to obtain a report from her doctor that clarified all her problems, located his file and made sure that it reached the appropriate office. Combining the report with the items already in the file and pointing out the appropriate regulations under which this case should be evaluated made the claim so strong that the Judge granted our request to hold in His favor without even scheduling the case for a hearing! This allowed her to begin receiving retroactive and ongoing benefits many months sooner than if a hearing had been necessary.