DDServices
Summary
Main Office
161 Golf Club Lane
Venice,
FL 34293
Years of Experience
23
Websites
Geographies
Office Locations
Main Office
161 Golf Club Lane
Venice, FL 34293
Local, experienced professional help. No advance fees or expenses.
I strive to make the process of pursuing a Social Security disability claim less stressful and more successful. Unlike many representatives, I accept cases before the hearing level and try to win as soon as possible. I'm a non-attorney professional representative with 23 years of experience authorized by SSA to assist disabled claimants with applications, appeals, hearings and Appeals Council reviews of unfavorable hearing decisions. You will be working directly with a SS advocate who lives in your community, makes homes visits, and is familiar with local resources that may help you meet basic needs while waiting for a favorable decision. If I accept your case, there is no retainer or any fee unless your case is won. Consults and file reviews are performed without charge or obligation. I don't even charge for medical record expenses if your case is not won. The burden is on me to do a good job or I don't get paid. I hope am able to help you.
Articles Written
Disability Claims and Appeals After Death
Created On: 04/26/2011
The process of applying for disability benefits, from initial disability application to an acceptance or denial of the disability claim, can take months and sometimes even years.
Retired Early? Social Security Disability Eligibility
Created On: 04/26/2011
Social Security Disability and Multiple Sclerosis
Created On: 04/26/2011
Individuals with M.S. who use walkers or wheelchairs, can’t see well enough to drive, or have two or more severe exacerbations a year generally have no problem being approved medically for Social...
Case History
Benefits Despite a Return to Work
Practice Area: Social Security Disability
Description: A younger client with Lupus experienced severe complications that interfered with her ability to work gainfully for 12 months.
Outcome: A favorable hearing decision is issued granting benefits, a trial work period and continuing eligibility for medical benefits for 36 months during an extended period of eligibility so she can get the treatment she needs to stay healthy.
Application Error Equals Reconsideration Approval
Practice Area: Social Security Disability
Description: Review of a denied application showed that SSA's own assessment of a claimant's residual functional capacity should have resulted in an approval based on his age and prior work experience.
Outcome: Benefits were approved at reconsideration. The error was called to SSA's attention and the state agency reversed it's decision for my client. File reviews are important!
SSI for son helps whole family
Practice Area: Social Security Disability
Description: Parents of a young man with chronic mental health problems could no longer provide him with health insurance or meet his needs at home. When he turned 18, they helped him apply for SSI but he was denied twice.
Outcome: With development of additional evidence including assessments by state Vocational Rehabilitation services, the client was approved after a hearing for SSI and Medicaid. This gave him access to special living assistance and case management services, too.
On verge of homelessness, hope
Practice Area: Social Security Disability
Description: A woman in her 40s with a history of emotional and physical problems was taken in by a relative. The client had not received medical services in over a year. When her benefactor became ill this year, she could no longer support the client.
Outcome: The client was brought to the health department for help with her problems and so they could be documented before her hearing. A judge found the client disabled as of 2007. She will be able to get better medical care and pay her own way after facing possible eviction in March.
Nurse who helped others needs help
Practice Area: Social Security Disability
Description: A 61 year old RN 's Vietnam era service connected vision problem recurs after an unsuccessful surgery leaves him blind in one eye. This happens after he is already on light duty for an on the job injury. A disoriented patient had injured his dominant hand. The hospital where he works won't give him further accommodations and terminates him as unfit for work. SSA finds him capable of performing his nursing duties despite these facts.
Outcome: Based on new supportive evidence gathered from his doctors and my case summary, benefits are awarded without the long wait for a hearing by a senior attorney advisor working in SSA's national case screening project.
Wise Compromises Can Win
Practice Area: Social Security Disability
Description: A homeless man has a chronic leg injury and trouble walking and standing for years. SSA rules, though, say if you are under 50, you are not disabled if you can do a full time job sitting. He has no problem sitting for long periods.
Outcome: March 2011--After getting supportive evidence for his limitations and educating the client about SSA's rules, I ask my client to consider amending his onset date. He agrees and we amend his onset of disability date to his 50th birthday in November of 2010. I submit a case summary and request for an on the record decision. A favorable decision is issued without his having to wait for a hearing.
Appeals Council Gives Unrepresented Client New Hearing
Practice Area: Social Security Disability
Description: A woman with inter-related physical and emotional problems and a limited education went to a hearing without a representative in 2009. She did not know she had to prove she was disabled before 9/30/2000 when her credits for the disability program expired. The judge asked a medical expert who was not a mental health professional to testify at her hearing. The woman was found to have no limitations attributable to her severe depression before 2000 and the impact of frequent migraines on her functioning prior to 2000 was not addressed by the ME or ALJ.
Outcome: I obtained an inference of functioning prior to Sept. 2000 from the client's current psychiatrist and prepared a detailed memorandum pointing out defects in the decision after reviewing a copy of her file and a recording of the hearing. The Appeals Council has instructed SSA to give the client a new hearing with a psychiatric or psychological expert witness and to consider evidence of migraine headaches as well as new evidence from her treating psychiatrist.
Overpayment Reduced By Reinstatement of Disability Benefits
Practice Area: Social Security Disability
Description: A man who received disability benefits returned to work after completing a trial work period years earlier. His 36 month extended period of eligibility already expired. He timely reported all work activity but SSA did not review his case until he was already off work again more than a year later due to his severe mental and physical health problems. He was found to be overpaid on his and a child's account by over $50,000.00
Outcome: I developed additional evidence about the client's impairments and how they affect him. A medical doctor who was not a psychiatrist and who had not reviewed the entire file gave unfavorable testimony at the client's hearing. During my cross examination, he admitted to the legitimacy of many of my client's symptoms and and his lack of qualifications to evaluate the nature and severity of the client's mental impairment. The ALJ awarded benefits back to when the client last worked wiping out over a year of the overpayment, paying off the rest, and leaving the client with sizable a retroactive check.
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