My lawyer was mostly useless. Social Security refused to pay her entire cut of the proceeds when I finally got disability 3 years after starting my quest for it. I had to do most of the work. She almost missed a deadline. My records were lost and my congressman had to find them (twice). I learned my lesson not to trust the MS group (I forget which one it was, the big one), because I informed them of my misery and they still had this lawyer as a speaker at gatherings. Good thing I had my husband to live off of while I tried to get Social Security. I fought hard to get this disability, perhaps would have been better off living on my husband's salary and then retirement, but I was determined to have justice. I got my private disability (through work) the very day I applied for it, and had a physiatrist study of my capacity, which the physiatrist said was so bad that I could not work at anything, let alone teach in front of 90 students a day. I was at a low when the physiatrist tested me and could hardly lift two towels from one table to another. But my abilities improved after going on the Swank diet for a while, and not being under the extreme stress of work; but of course I could hardly make out the SSA forms because of eye-hand coordination problems, even when I had improved. Later my eyes improved completely, although hands still weak.

I hate the system. They say there are cheaters, but I wasn't one of them, and I fought to get it!