Persons receiving Social Security Disability benefits will see a little more money in their checks next year, but some say it’s not enough. Thanks to a cost of living increase recently announced by the federal government, disability benefits will increase by 1.7 percent next year. The bump is likely, however, to be outpaced by rising...

New York disability attorney Federal ERISA Law New York ERISA, or the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, is a federal program legislated in 1974 with the purpose of standardizing benefits for employees such as healthcare, retirement, and profit sharing. Prior to the implementation of ERISA, an employee might pay into such programs faithfully over a...

Fibromyalgia is a musculoskeletal disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain and a heightened and painful response to pressure. Anyone who suffers from this serious impairment knows that it’s very painful and can make it hard to perform a wide variety of jobs on a daily basis. The good news is that people who are unable...

Retired NYPD Sergeant Michael Kull was wrongfully accused of disability fraud. He was eventually acquitted of the crime, but during the criminal process prosecutors froze his financial accounts and also cut off his Social Security Disability payments. Despite his innocence and eventual acquittal, Kull had to wage an uphill battle to get reinstated for the...

Retired NYPD Sergeant Michael Kull was wrongfully accused of disability fraud. He was eventually acquitted of the crime, but, during the criminal process, prosecutors froze his financial accounts and also cut off his Social Security Disability payments. Despite his innocence and eventual acquittal, Kull had to wage an uphill battle to get reinstated for the...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Home health aides are a vital, segment of the American workforce whose efforts help ensure that elderly and incapacitated individuals are properly looked after. In our practice we see how often these workers suffer their own injuries while helping their clients; in addition to having other medical impairments that can leave them unable to perform...

New York social security disability lawyers Keeping Your SSD Benefits If you have been awarded Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits, the Social security Administration (SSA) is required to periodically review your case to determine if you remain disabled. Known as the continued disability review (CDR), New York social security disability lawyers caution that if the...

While the claimant seeking Social Security Disability benefits in Plant v. Commissioner of Social Security was not successful, the court’s opinion in this case provides useful information for other persons seeking benefits about how to prove that a mental or physical impairment (or combination of impairments) is sufficiently severe. The Social Security Administration (SSA) denied...

Bipolar disorder is a serious mental impairment that can affect every aspect of a person’s day-to-day life, including his or her ability to work. In Bohn v. Commissioner of Social Security, the District Court for the Northern District of New York examined a case in which the Social Security Administration (SSA) appeared not to understand...

While a Social Security Disability claim is generally won or lost based on the ultimate determination of whether or not the claimant can work, there is a detailed sequential analysis that must be performed prior to reaching this decision. Step two of this analysis concerns the severity of the claimant’s physical or mental impairments. In...

Social Security Disability benefits are generally available to workers in a wide variety of jobs across industries, provided that the individual worker meets program requirements. That said, workers in certain jobs are likely to face specific issues particular to their vocation or industry when seeking benefits. It is important to keep these in mind when...

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]In Potter v. Astrue, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York explains once again that a doctor’s opinion alone isn’t enough to win a Social Security Disability claim. There must be objective evidence in the record to support the opinion. Mr. Potter filed a claim for Social Security Disability benefits in...

A Missouri federal court’s recent decision in Fields v. Commissioner of Social Security is yet another example of the perils of going it alone in a Social Security Disability claim. The Social Security Administration (SSA) denied Edward Fields’ claim for disability benefits, in which he asserted that he’s unable to work as a result of...

Social Security Disability cases often come down to a battle of medical experts, with a decisionmaker left to choose between competing opinions on how certain impairments impact the claimant’s ability to work. In Keith v. Commissioner of Social Security, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey explains that a Social Security Administration...

Many of the Social Security Disability cases we discuss on this blog concern the main issue in a disability benefits claim: whether or not the person seeking benefits can still work, despite his or her impairments. Or, in the parlance of the gatekeepers at the Social Security Administration (SSA), whether the claimant is “disabled” for...