I would guess (with no evidence to back me up but logical thinking) that any rep who claims 98% approval is not telling the truth. A firm with a low approval rate may be the one who is willing to take on ANY claim and try to make a case without much evidence. A claim with a higher rate of approvals may only be taking on 'easy' claims. Hard to really tell.

chaddiwicker do the appeal. dont give up. keep fighting. there have been people who have posted here who have won at the appeals council. one person was after fighting for seven years and having the appeals council remand it back to the alj 2x. Legalmania herself has won a case for someone at the appeals council. I wish you well.

Well I personally have won the 2 cases I did at the appeal level, and I'm only a paralegal. So I have a 100% winning rate. If it was such a failure then why would SS continue to have this costly process of appeal and continue to fool the public into thinking they could win ? I think if there was no way to win then, attorneys would be hesitant to take cases, at this stage, because if they lose they don't get paid, and writing a brief is not a 20 minute job it takes hours. You have to gather case law, statutes, medical evidence, and expert opinions. IMO a logical way of thinking is case by case. If the case was so easy they would win at the reconsideration level or ALJ level. The Appeals Council is a very complicated stage. I haven't found anything submitted by the SS agency saying that your chances of winning are low, especially as low as 2%. I have read that millions are on SSI and SSDI so that is a lot of people who won somehow. Anyone on here who is at the AC level don't think your chances are low, if you have a good case and a experienced attorney your chances are excellent.

The only stat I could find supporting the 2% favorable decision made by the Appeals Council was from various unofficial sources like prominent attorney sites.

100% favorable decisions is a great stat; the number of cases is so small that the stat is not that strong an indicator of anyone else's chances, but positive thinking is always a good idea.

That there are many people who have been approved for SSDI and SSI says NOTHING about what percentage of them were approved at the AC level. The question "If it was such a failure then why would SS continue to have this costly process of appeal and continue to fool the public into thinking they could win ? " brings the obvious counterpoint.....If there was such a rate of success why would SS continue the costly process of appeals instead of just approving people at the ALJ level ?

I think telling people their chances at the AC level are excellent when you don't know that to be true is cruel. If you have a good case and an experienced attorney, you SHOULD have been approved before the AC level.

Getting approved is about having a good case AND having strong medical documentation that PROVES your case. An experienced attorney should also help. My situation was the same, but a new neurologist provided better documentation for my ALJ appearance than my physiatrist did on my application and reconsideration. I also had to submit more documentaion. I was careful to better describe my 'usual' day and how my disbilities affect me.

I urge anyone working on an AC appeal to review all of their documention to make sure it shows a clear clinical picture of their functional ability. It's not about a list of diagnoses.....it's about explaining why the medical or mental impairments you have prevent you from being able to do SGA.

Thinking you are a 'sure thing' with a 98% approval rate can get your hopes up only to have them dashed. Just don't let thinking it's 'too difficult' stop you from trying to get the benefits you deserve.

Wikipedia says

Level Approval % % of denials appealed
Initial 36 33
Reconsideration 14 > 90
ALJ 63 43
AC 33 no further appeals, Federal Court

Excellent advice!!!!



I couldn't have said it better myself!

i doubt that any law firm has that many cases that they have filed a brief for at the appeals council or federal court levels. Its only a very small number of cases that get to that level. So 2 for 2 is a very good record as far as i am concerned.

They Pretty much did the same to me Here in oregon when i got shot in the head Via a Marine home on leave .
Christian I wish you the best also maybe contact someone in california and have the them talk to you about your case .
they actually helped me By bringing in a SSI judge from california

Wishing you the best.

what ****** me off are the guys that can go gold panning and deliver cords of wood that have Back Injuries and have been on SSDI for 10-15 yrs .

***
When you really need the help no one can get it but the ones who can actually work cant thats wrong. Very Wrong.
Id turn them in if i knew how

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/appeal...tatistics.html

106,964 Appeals Council Requests were made between 10/08 and 9/09. And the AC only finished 89,066 of them in an average time of 8.7 months which left more pending at the end of the fiscal year than was pending at the beginning of the fiscal year. Nothing about number of fully favorable. When the AC does act, they generally choose to remand a case, send it back for either more testimony or a better written decision. Occasionally, they make an independent fully favorable.

The AC can also do own motion reviews of ALJ fully favorable decisions and hold up payment of benefits while they do a full review of the case for legal errors. And if they find a legal error, they will send the case back (remand) to the ALJ to fix the decision, get additional evidence, or change the favorable to a denial.