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Levels of Appeal Initial Application: Your initial social security disability and/or supplemental security income application can be filed by telephone by dialing 1-800-772-1213. If your claim is denied, you must appeal the denial within 60 days of the denial date. At this stage of the application process, the Social Security Administration contracts the Oregon Department of Disability Services (DDS) to determine whether you are disabled. DDS is located in Salem, Oregon and will contact you by telephone and/or letter during this process. You may be asked to see a doctor, psychologist, and/or a vocational evaluator. If so, please let our office know who you are scheduled to see. It is very important that you keep any evaluation appointments scheduled for you by Social Security. Please be completely honest about your condition and do your best during any testing. Do not exaggerate your condition in any way, as the experts are trained to recognize any exaggeration of symptoms and may use it against you. It normally takes two to four months to receive a decision on your initial claim. If you are denied, we need to file an appeal within 60 days. We normally do not assist clients with the initial application process. Request For Reconsideration: This stage of the Social Security appeals process is also handled by DDS. You may request a reconsideration no later than sixty days from the denial. It is important to file this Request for Reconsideration in a timely fashion, and this can be done even before you retain a lawyer. As with the initial application, a Request for Reconsideration may be filed by you or your attorney at a local Social Security Office. If the claimant fails to file for reconsideration and later decides to reapply for benefits, he/she may lose some benefits, or may not qualify for any benefits at all. Therefore, it is crucial for you or your attorney to file for reconsideration. At the reconsideration stage. Remember at this stage you are asking DDS to admit that they made a mistake when they denied your initial application. As you can guess, DDS usually believes it was right the first time. Do not be surprised if DDS denies your claim a second time. DDS normally makes this decision in approximately four months. If you do not hear anything after four months please call us. DDS may again ask you to see a doctor, a psychologist, and/or a vocational evaluator. If DDS denies your case again, we must appeal their decision within 60 days of the denial date by requesting a hearing in front of an Administrative Law Judge. This is the stage where we normally become involved in a case. If denied on reconsideration, the claimant may then file a Request for Hearing of the decision by the Office of Hearings and Appeals. The applicant must request the hearing in writing within sixty days of the date of the reconsideration denial notice. The form is actually called a Request for Hearing and may be obtained from the local Social Security office. It is important to file the Request for Hearing in a timely fashion, and to save the receipt to prove it was filed on time. After you have received your letter stating that the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) has received your request for hearing, you will not hear from OHA for about nine to twelve months. The hearing office takes a nine to twelve month period to process the thousands of cases that are submitted to their office. You will normally not hear much from our office during the time you are waiting for your hearing. During this time period it is important for you to continue to see your treating doctors or medical providers as often as possible for treatment for your impairment. When seeing your providers, make sure you mention to them how your impairments affect your ability to do tasks around the house, interact with others and generally affect your life and lifestyle. Normally, your complaints will be written down in the medical record. This written documentation will help support your case at the upcoming hearing. Although it is very important to retain an experienced Social Security Disability lawyer at this point. After a wait of approximately nine to ten months, you will receive another questionnaire from the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) entitled "Claimant’s Questionnaire." This questionnaire is an indication that your file is being prepared for a hearing by OHA. When you receive this questionnaire, please fill it out completely and send it to our office or your attorney as soon as possible. We will forward it to OHA and begin to update your Social Security file with current medical records. Do all you can to collect your medical records because most of the time doctors will not charge the patient for their own records. Doctors almost always charge attorneys for records. Your assistance in securing records will help keep costs you are responsible for paying down. Please do not ask your doctor to write a letter on your behalf for your Social Security case. It can hurt your case rather than help it. Doctors are not aware of Social Security law and without our guidance may write something not in conformity with the law. Once we receive notice that your hearing is coming up, we will set up an appointment with you to meet with your attorney. At this conference your attorney will review your case, prepare you for the hearing, and determine what additional evidence we may need to collect. This appointment usually takes about an hour. Next you should receive a formal Notice of Hearing from the Office of Hearings and Appeals stating the date and location of the hearing. You should double check this Notice to verify the information you have been given about your hearing is accurate. On the date of the hearing, please be at the Office of Hearings and Appeals one half hour before the hearing for additional review of your case with your attorney. At your hearing, the judge may decide your case at the hearing, although this is rare. If he/she does not approve your appeal at the hearing you may have to wait from two to six months for a written decision. If you have not received a decision by the third month after the hearing, please call your attorney and they will write the judge a letter asking for the status of your case, as a gentle reminder. If the judge denies your case we will have 60 days to appeal the judge’s decision. Request to Review Administrative Law Judge’s Decision: If we appeal the denial of your case by the Administrative Law Judge, your file and the decision are sent to the Appeals Council in Falls Church, Virginia for review. The Appeals Council may affirm the Judge’s decision denying benefits, reverse the decision and grant you benefits, or send your case back for another hearing. Normally the AC agrees with the judge’s decision. This appeals process can take anywhere from two months to two years for completion, although usually we receive a decision from the AC within six months. If the Administrative Law Judge’s decision is affirmed we will consider filing a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court against the Social Security Administration. If the AC affirms the judge’s denial we generally recommend that besides filing a lawsuit against Social Security, you file a new application for disability and use the day after the hearing date as your on-set of disability date for this second claim. If you re-apply, your present attorney does not automatically represent you in your new case. You will need to contact us if you would like us to represent you on your second claim. Please do not assume we are your representative for this second claim. If you hire an attorney for the second claim the Administration must receive official notice of your representation.
US District Court: It will normally takes approximately nine to twelve months to receive a decision from the federal court from the day we file a lawsuit on your behalf, although it may take longer. A lawsuit can produce three different results: 1) the best result is that the federal judge orders the Social Security Administration to pay you benefits; 2) the next best result is that the Social Security Administration (or the court) agrees to send your case back for another hearing, usually with the same Administrative Law Judge; and 3) the worst result is that the court agrees with the Administrative Law Judge’s denial of your case. If the Social Security Administration or court sends your case back for another hearing, it will take from three to eight months to have that hearing. If the Administrative Law Judge denies your case again, you can appeal that denial directly to federal court. If the court agrees with Administrative Law Judge’s denial of your case, we have the option of appealing your case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals located in San Francisco. Before an attorney will file an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, they have to be convinced that the federal court made an error that the Ninth Circuit will reverse. Ninth Circuit cases are time, work and paper intensive. APPLYING FOR DISABILITY WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA DISORDER Home
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