Our Social Security Disability Attorneys Can Represent You at Hearing We Can Guide You Through Your ALJ Hearing
At Hawks Quindel we help people throughout Wisconsin win SSDI appeals at hearing. You can count on respectful, compassionate treatment and personal attention when you turn to our firm. We work hard for you before, during and after your social security hearing.
Collecting Medical Evidence
During the period between requesting a hearing and the time social security sets your hearing (typically a year or more), the attorneys and staff at Hawks Quindel will work with you to collect all of the medical records pertinent to your claim. This evidence will serve as the basis for establishing the disabling conditions which render you unable to work. In addition to the medical records, we will work with your doctors to obtain opinions about how your impairment limits your ability to work and to function in your daily life. These opinions are critical to rebut evidence put on the record by Social Security and to prove your inability to work. Our disability team has worked with many of the doctors in the state and can help you present this critical evidence to the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who will decide your case.
Preparing for Hearing
Prior to your hearing, the disability team will have collected and summarized all information and medical records relevant to your claim. Using these records, the attorney you are working with will prepare a legal brief outlining the factual and legal reasons why the ALJ should approve your claim. Your attorney will meet with you in person to prepare your testimony for hearing, provided your physical condition allows it. If witnesses are needed (they are not in most cases), the attorney will meet with and prepare any witnesses for the hearing as well.
Arguing Your Case at the ALJ Hearing
Social Security hearings are less formal than proceedings in state for federal court. A typical hearing will include the ALJ, the individual appealing his/her benefits denial, his/her attorney, and a vocational expert. Medical experts and additional witnesses are needed in some cases. Hearings rarely exceed one hour. At the hearing, you can expect that the ALJ will do a good deal of the questioning and your attorney will supplement those areas not fully explored by the ALJ. Following this examination, the ALJ will present hypothetical work restrictions to the vocational expert and ask the expert’s opinion about whether any jobs exist within those restrictions. Depending on the testimony of the vocational expert, your attorney will cross examine them in an effort to prove you are unable to work.
Evaluating Further Appeals
Within a couple of months following the hearing, the ALJ will issue his or her decision. If benefits are approved and there are back benefits payable, you will promptly receive payment. If the decision is not favorable, you will not be charged attorney’s fees. The attorney representing you will evaluate whether there is an appealable issue and if representation can be extended to additional appeals at the Appeals Counsel or in federal court.
If your request for reconsideration has been denied, a Hawks Quindel attorney will evaluate your claim free of charge. Act quickly, as you have only sixty (60) days from the date of your denial to request an administrative law judge hearing. You will incur no attorney fees unless we take your case and you ultimately receive benefits.
Please call a Madison social security disability attorney directly at (608) 257-0040 or a Milwaukee social security disability attorney at (414) 271-8650, or email us via our Contact Page.