There are a couple of instances where they can request higher fees. If you fire them and hire new counsel is one. And in the instances of state or federal court.

Here is an example of a fee agreement and as you can see they do allow exceptions.
http://www.ssa.gov/representation/mo...guage.htm#sb=3

If a person's case proceeds to the Appeal's Council or Federal Court level, it is not uncommon for attorneys to simply drop their clients, particularly at the Federal Court level where you really NEED an attorney.


When you read a link like this: http://www.disabilitysecrets.com/question16.html
they avoid the exceptions, so it's no surprise that the situation's confusing. And honestly, I'd link to that page and not explain the exceptions in most cases. --While I know attorney's can ask for higher fees at the Appeal's Council stage they won't necessarily from my understanding, and they do have to justify their time. --I was under the impression the higher fees are a given at the Federal Court stage. Also, if an error at the ALJ level is not readily apparent and someone has to go through an audio file of a hearing or a transcript hunting it could ending up being a major project though, so the exception option would make sense. I would think an attorney would be able to let you know before moving forward how complicated such an appeal would be--and the more difficult, the more they can justify extra fees. A beneficiary can always contest their attorney's fees, btw. (One of the regular poster's on this forum did just that successfully--maybe left handed or ms. migraine?)

Remember it is also a common tactic of ALJ's to agree to a Fully Favorable decision if the applicant agrees to a later Alleged Onset Date. Since the vast majority of successful appeal's are simply remands, the attorneys often end up with reduced fees that way as well.

My personal feeling is that the SS fee agreement policy encourages attorneys to lengthen the process to collect their max fees. It's also become pretty common for people to say, "You won't be approved until you get before a judge." As Janke points out, about 30% of claimants are approved at the first stage. If a person does the minimum with the expectation their attorney can only win benefits for them, they'll be on the path to a long and frustrating experience. I often encourage people to explore non attorney representation because if you can find a good one, they often seem to be willing to work harder and earlier in the process.