Please pass the salt…

You have filed or are considering filing a disability claim with the Social Security Administration and are finding conflicting information about the process and what to expect. You’ve heard from family, friends, your doctors, or even people who happen to “overhear” your conversation and decide to share their experience or that of someone else they know. Some claim they were approved “right away” or “just a couple months” after they filed the application. Yet others claim they were denied “five times” before they were finally approved. A call to the Social Security Administration results in yet more differing information. In all actuality, you may want to consider taking all that information with a very large grain of salt and consult with an attorney’s office.

Please keep in mind, no claim will go through the process the same way twice and no two claims are alike. So many variables are involved which makes it next to impossible to predict how a claim will pan out. Factors such as how one person’s body is affected by a condition compared to another person with the same illness, different physicians prescribing different methods of treatment, even the level of detail one doctor will note in the medical records as opposed to another doctor’s. Not to mention the “hearsay” from third parties who are completely unaware of the full facts of the situation. One would even think the SSA representatives would give the same or even “right” answer, but that’s also not the case. No two representatives have the same level of knowledge about the same types of claims or related situations. I personally have tested that theory and found very differing answers to the exact same question. So please, before you assume you know how your claim will turn out, please ask for the salt, and contact an attorney’s office who handles disability claims. You may not get a prediction from a crystal ball, but you will be more likely to receive consistent and reliable information – it’s what we do.