Hi Lit Love.

With regard to this. My injury and resulting disability happened on the job and as a result there was a lot of complication regarding workers comp and then SSI. Also, I was a Federal employee, and any Federal employee labor lawyer will tell you that the laws for being injured as a Federal employee are not the same as regular workers comp. You can’t even use a workers comp lawyer, you have to get a lawyer that specializes in Federal employee law. They have to handle both the Federal workers comp as well as the transition to SSI.

With regard to the other post about my original post. When I made the post I did not think a little flowery language would be an issue, since I pasted the entire article into my post. I figured that it would all be very clear what it said and what I meant. But that part of my post got chopped due to copyright reasons, something I did not anticipate, and so it changed the whole way the post presents itself. Had I originally posted as it reads with the article chopped, then yes I would agree it is taking too much license with the article. But again it was not intentional and it was originally meant to be self explanatory.

With regard to this. "The most important thing we can do to improve the disability process is to make the right decision as soon as possible," Astrue said at a recent congressional hearing. "Certainly, I'm not happy with the accuracy of the system, even though it is getting better."

I am not poking the bear here, but a (congressional hearing) press release does not a policy make. If it means a lot to you that the guy said it, I take no issue with that. But until I see tangible results for those suffering through the process, it is just a public relations statement. Good PR is still just PR.

God Bless You, Lit, and thanks for the shots across the bow.

Bernclay- :holysheep:

It does sound like you have really been through the wringer BernClay.

I disagree with your conclusion of SSDI's intent to torture and cause pain to the disabled. I sincerely believe they do not easily and speedily approve everyone because they think many applicants are not actually disabled. I think they are proven correct with that assumption when some people do return to work.

There have been several posters on the SSDI forum here who have written things to the effect of "I just got my denial, so I guess I'll have to go back to work, I can't afford to wait to get approved." I think that is SSDI's point......if there is ANY way we can work, we SHOULD be working.

I do agree with you that for many of us, the AJL process is WAY too long. I'm thinking of the 3 years it took to decide my case......one would think it wouldn't take THAT long to decide that someone was sincere in their claim that they were disabled.

I think there should be a middle ground..........somewhere more than a few weeks and much less than a few years

Bernclay -

What about the press release from the Social Security Administration, dated March 2, 2010, Social Security Hearings Backlog Falls to Lowest Level Since 2005, to the effect that the average processing time for hearing decisions has decreased to 442 days, down from a high of 514 days at the end of fiscal year (FY) 2008? http://www.socialsecurity.gov/presso...og-0310-pr.htm

I have to think this is for the good.

Mike

Hi again everyone.

To be fair Finz, I would say that my real horrible experience was mostly from the workers comp part of my process. While my SSI experience may not have been pleasant, it was not nearly as bad my workers comp experience. Since I had one lawyer handling my entire situation, and it was all interrelated, and it went on for so many years, and I was busy dealing with my condition, I do have a tendency to lump the entire problem together without selecting out what was more horrible. But it really was just Hell from start to finish.

Fmichael, from your posts I would have to think that your concern is defending one political party over another. I can appreciate your political passion, but I am really not referring to any of that in my posts, since as I said my problems have spanned over several political administrations.

With regard to this, “ … Social Security Hearings Backlog Falls to Lowest Level Since 2005 … “, I don’t really see that as helping or hurting. My issue is how workers comp and SSI reduce their annual disability payouts. In my personal experience, I was deliberately dragged though an unnecessary and expensive legal process for the sole purpose of trying to pressure me into dropping my legitimate disability claim. This was done systematically, and it was done despite my medical documentation being beyond question. And as I said before, my very experienced lawyer told me that this was a common practice used by the government to pressure legitimately disabled people out of the system. To put it simply, the government strategy was to make my disability process as long and as difficult and as expensive as possible, with the expectation that I would give up out of frustration, and voluntarily drop my legitimate disability claim. But as I said above, I think most of this happened through the workers comp end of my experience.

If I am ruffling feathers here, that is really not my intent. I am just telling my experience. This did happen to me, and it was horrible, and I don’t think any policy can justify a legitimately disabled person being treated this way by the government.

If I go on and on about it you will have to forgive me. This experience, combined with the actual injury and resulting disability, completely destroyed my life.

God Bless You All.

Bernclay- :holysheep:

Understood. I guess my question is whether your situation with SSI improved in any appreciable fashion in our around the Summer or certainly the Fall of 2009, when the new admin. would have begun to excercise control over the SSA, or whether it appeared to you and your counsel they were still same old games? (And you wouldn't hurt ny feelings either way: I've long ago learned to be cynical. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, and all of that.)

Mike

The Cap on fees
 

Up until Jan 2009, I believe, or sometime around then the cap on attorney fees was $5300 anything filed after that is now $6000.

I filed in Summer of 2007 and was approved in Winter of 2010 almost 3 years.

Lots of patience is needed to succeed. I must say I never used my Lamaze Breathing more than since this whole nightmre started. From the accident to the surgeries,procedures, meds, etc., to losing my career, fighting a suite and then finally going for SS Disability....I have been fighting in some way shape or form since 2003.

It's really is hard to go through all the red tape but just think if we did not live in a country where we did not have a option to even fight for anything leave alone SS Benefits. So, at the end of the day I still appreciate that I breath every day and after 7 years plus I seem to have my life somewhat back in order. I still have my marriage and 2 great kids who I think have become better people for all that they have seen. My children are in High School and in College and I truly believe that if they did not see all I had to go through they would have taken life much more for granted.

Gabbycakes

I just wanted to clarify something here since there has been mention of lawyer fee caps, and I get the impression some people think I am talking out of my bottom when I say I had tens of thousands of dollars in lawyer fees.

If you are an injured Federal employee, and your employer (in whatever branch of the Federal government you work for) acts improperly with regard to your injury, workers comp, etc, you are forced into a very long and complicated legal process in order to compel your employer to act properly. Contrary to what some may believe, many branches of the Federal government do not treat their employees very well.

This entire process takes place both separately and together with workers comp and later with SSI disability. The process can go on for years. If it is not resolved, it is impossible to complete the workers comp and SSI that are intermixed with it. As far as I know this process only exists within the Federal employee system. This is why only lawyers who specialize in Federal employee law can take these cases.

So while there may be caps on lawyer fees for workers comp and SSI disability outside of the Federal employee system (and there may even be caps on workers comp and SSI within the Federal employee system, although I don’t think so, but that is not relevant to what I am talking about), there are NO caps whatsoever on this other Federal employee legal process that is intertwined with the workers comp and SSI process.

This is what happened to me as an injured Federal employee, and this is how I ended up with lawyer fees in the tens of thousands of dollars. Thank you to anyone who was concerned about posting correct information regarding fee caps for SSI. But the process I am referring to has no fee caps. It can go on for years and I have heard of cases accumulating legal fees in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Anyone outside of the Federal employee system would not have had this kind of experience.

God Bless You All.

Bernclay- :holysheep:

I apologize...
 

Never being a federal empolyee I did not have any idea that federal employees of any branch did not have the same access to benenfits from the goverment as any other American. That really surprises me I had know idea. Just out of curiosity why are federal empolyees treated diffenently. Did you have to agree to this when you took employee from them? I am just really, really shocked!

Again, I do apologize.

I could be off here a bit. I believe at one time not so far in the distant past federal employees did not participate in Social Security or only paid a small percentage compared to most others. I also heard from a relative who works for the fed that government employees are not allowed to add their 18-26 year old children to their health insurance policy which is a new or upcoming new law.

Hi BC........Yes, I was thinking you got scr*wed by your lawyer for charging over the SSDI cap, but as your posts went on it became clear that it was the federal job portion of your disability claim that made your experience so different than many of ours. I think a lot of us focused on the SSDI article that you pasted.

Most of us do have to wait years for SSDI, but we know the max lawyer fee going into it when we decide to get a lawyer's assistance or not. I know , in my case, it was soooooo worth it