You may file applications for SSD and/or SSI three ways: 1. File online at ssa.gov 2. Go to your local Social Security office and file in person. 3. Call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213

Your application(s) will go to a state agency known as the Disability Determination Service where it could take anywhere from three to six months to be reviewed.

You have 60 days to file a Request for Reconsideration. You may file the appeal online, or you may file appeal paperwork directly with your local SSA office. If you feel you need help in filing your Request for Reconsideration, please call our office to schedule an appointment. Teal Parham generally does not take on clients officially at the Request for Reconsideration appeal level, but she is available to help if you need it.

You have 60 days to file a Request for Hearing Before an Administrative Law Judge. This is the appeal level where Teal Parham usually represents a claimant before the Social Security Administration. Please contact our office to schedule an appointment with Teal Parham.

The majority of our cases go to the Portland, Oregon Office of Hearings Operations. That office is taking approximately 12 to 15 months to get a hearing date after the Request for Hearing has been filed.

Yes. Judges tend to be more favorable to claimants they meet and talk with in person.

Depending on where you live, hearings take place in Portland, Oregon, or Olympia, Tacoma or Seattle, Washington.

It is very informal, not a courtroom setting. The hearing takes place in a room, around a table with the administrative law judge, you and your representative Teal Parham, and usually a vocational expert. Hearings generally last less than an hour. The judge asks you questions, and Mrs. Parham has the opportunity to ask you questions. The judge asks the vocational expert what type of jobs in the national economy that you might be able to perform, and Mrs. Parham also has the opportunity to ask the vocational expert questions. You and the vocational expert would not speak to each other. Sometimes a medical expert is also at the hearing. Again, the judge and Mrs. Parham will question that expert.

There is no requirement as to how long a judge may take to make a decision. On average, it takes about 45 to 60 days after the hearing to get the decision in the mail.

Social Security will process your benefits and get you in to your regular monthly benefit in about 60 days. If you are entitled to a lump sum settlement of back-due benefits, Social Security may take another 30 to 60 days to pay that, but each case is different and may take longer than that.

The attorney fee is 25% of your lump sum settlement of back-due benefits, up to a maximum of $6,000, whichever is lower. Social Security approves the attorney fee, and the fee is paid directly to the attorney out of your back-due benefits. There may be additional costs that Social Security does not pay, such as the cost of medical records. We pay for copies of your medical records while we work on your case, and that is a cost of your case that you must reimburse the attorney for when your case is over. Social Security does not pay that for you when they pay the attorney fee.

Yes. A Request for Review of Hearing Decision/Order must be filed within 60 days of the judge's unfavorable decision. Your case would then to go the Appeals Council in Falls Church, Virginia. Currently, the Appeals Council is taking approximately 15 months to review a claim and make a decision.

A lawsuit against Social Security in federal district court must be filed within 60 days of the Appeals Council denial. The standard of review in federal district court is whether that was substantial evidence for the administrative law judge's findings, not whether the district court judge agrees with the findings or not. The district court judge does not re-evaluate your case for disability. The district court judge would just look at whether there was enough evidence to support the findings of the administrative law judge. Furthermore, no further evidence or testimony can be submitted.