Quote:
Originally Posted by Rrae
Hi all,
I'm in the process of finding representation. I've found a lawyer near my town who seems to have good credentials.
Regarding his fee agreement: it states the normal doodad about getting 25% of back pay with a limit of $6,000.
HOWEVER: it says...
if you are denied at the original hearing and it must be appealed and then you are awarded a new hearing and upon the new hearing you are granted benefits, the $6000 limit is dropped due to the amount of work involved.
So, in essence he gets 25% of ALL back pay with NO limit.
So basically, using easy math let's say a person is awarded $1,000/month.
If the whole process takes 3 yrs, that is $36,000 of back pay
25% of that = $9,000
and if it drags out 4 yrs, that is 48,000.
25% of that = $12,000 he gets.
Is this standard? Is there really 'that' much more work involved for him?
of course the SSA has to authorize the amount he gets, but I mean, wow.
Wouldn't this give him incentive to 'want' to let it drag out?
One would hope not, but....just saying. 
Thanks for any input
Rae |
If you already have this opinion about your potential representative, then he is not the right one for you.
Another point to think about is that the attorney could also put in hours and hours of work (and attorneys generally bill out at $200-$500 an hour) and get no money at all. At that point, the lawyer would file a fee petition and document every phone call (billing at 1/4 hour), the time it takes him or his staff to complete appeal forms, the time it takes him to read your medical records or prepare a pre-hearing brief, the time he spends in the prehearing discussion with you, etc. etc. If you are the kind of person who wants your lawyer to explain everything, every step of the way, all of those 15 minute phone calls could easily add up quickly
What action or inaction do you believe is under the control of the lawyer in terms of how quickly SSA makes a decision? I suppose agreeing to a date for the hearing is one issue, but a busy representative would have a pretty full calendar and the busy ODAR office doesn't have unlimited empty hearing dates.
But really, if you don't like this clause up front, you won't like it at the back end either so you should probably keep shopping for someone who won't want more money for more work.