OP--

Attorneys for SSI/SSDI cases can only be paid out of a portion of your backpay. They have little incentive to put in much work until you've racked up some significant backpay. What you're experiencing is not unusual. I generally think it's a bad idea to hire one this early on. A compromise is to go with a non-attorney rep--they are often former SS employees. Allsup is an example ofsuch a company.

If you choose to fire them, they can still request part of the eventual % of attorney fees. It would be best to get them to release you by being a PITA... A new attorney or service will not want to have to split their fee.

You can ammend you Alleged Onset Date of disability. If you can prove a major reduction of monthly billings, so long the billings were below the SGA level for that year, that would be a date to choose. If you have any communications in writing with clients that you recommend they make other arrangements due to your failing health, that might help.

Did you stop driving or hire someone to clean your home, run errands, etc. during any period? Did your meds increase? Did you discontinue any activities from a decline in health?

The issue with back payments came up a few years back in a thread and I believe it was compared at the time as getting the opportunity to pay an insurance policy years later after when a health problem pops up. Is it unfortunate in your case, especially since you've been ill such a long time? Yes. But I don't believe exceptions are made.

Regarding age issues, once you are over 55 you qualify in the "advanced age" category for the grid rules: http://www.ultimatedisabilityguide.com/grid_rules.html

thank you so much, you have put things in perspective.

Have you read this yet?

http://www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/title02/0205.htm

You want to pay attention to Section 205(c)(5).

Hi Soccertese,

I just wanted to explain a little more here about the info and links LL provided incase you aren't aware of how the system works. An SSDI lawyer or lawfirm gets paid by the SSA, out of your first backpay check, only if you are found to be totally disabled.

The lawyer gets 25% of your earned backpay up to a cap of $6000 (to the best of my knowledge, unless that amount was increased recently). In many cases, the date of disability is recognized as the date of the SSDI/SSI application. Of course, your case is different from most in that regard. SSDI also doesn't pay for the first 5 months of disability. If a lawyer is working for you and you are found to be totally disabled and qualified for SSDI fairly quickly, say with only 2 months of backpay owed on a $1000 a month SSDI case, that lawyer would be paid $500 (25% of the total $2000 backpay amount) and you would get $1500. We have to assume that most lawyers would prefer a $6000 payday per case over a $500 payday. It would take an evil person to deliberately sabotage a case at the early stages, but you can see how a lawyer has no financial incentive to try to push a case through quickly. Combine that with the long waits and frequent backlogs at the SSA and it definitely feels like we, the applicants, are the only ones trying to get a quick resolution to our applications.

I honestly couldn't say whether your law firm is practicing shoddily, with poor attention to detail, or if they only seem lacksadaisical while they are really just waiting for all of the facts to come in to see how this plays out so that they can focus on your best approach.

The thing is, whether or not any of us has confidence in your law firm doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. It sounds like YOU are unhappy with them.

I believe this whole process is so stressful it puts our already compromised bodies into an even more precarious situation. My issues are mostly pain related and added stress makes everything soooooo much worse. Stress doesn't help Parkinson's either.

I think it's critically important to try to relieve as much stress as possible. You can't MAKE the SSA decide things any quicker. You can require that your chosen lawyer not make this process even more difficult. If you KNOW that you just don't trust them, or have confidence in them, move on......try to find another lawyer. Interview them first and explain what concerned you about this firm and look for assurances that they would do things differently. If you are still on the fence about this firm, ask for a meeting to discuss your concerns. Maybe the paralegal doesn't know the rules about the SSA limits on when income was reported, but she was instructed to get your claim started during her meeting with you if you were "hiring" that firm. Maybe she made notes including that info, the lawyer read it, knows the rules, and is working on another angle, and you just don't know about it yet. I would call them and discuss my concerns. If you've already "had it" with them, then just move on.

If you call new lawyers to discuss switching, one of the first things you'll want to ask about is how payment is managed if you started with another lawyer. I heard something before about multiple firms being involved and that meant splitting the fee. I what the details were on that, if it matters how far the first lawyer got, if it's a 50/50 split, or any of that. Some of the more knowledgeable posters on SSDI rules and regs might be able to give some info on that.

thanks again, this firm is highly recommended, just not having the experience that i expected, kind of wanted to get a perspective on how SS firms work before i started a expressing my concerns to them. i'm not stupid and of course my mind is racing over all the things that could go wrong. not to beat a dead horse but to say the least i made this a much more difficult case because i didn't do my research, everyone with pd knows they'll eventually be disabled, i didn't do the basic research that ssdi is an insurance policy and if you don't pay enough premiums in last 5 years doesn't matter, or at least it seems, how disabled you are. would have been very easy to submit my 1040 minus schedule D just to get my SSA taxes recorded.
anyway, have the confidence and guidance i need to talk to my law firm, seems i need to make every effort to verify my disability in 2012, ball is in my court. i am a little surprised they haven't emphasized i start that asap since my pd is progressing and it's going to be harder to get that info as time goes on. the other thing i think i need to do is get a much more detailed medical evaluation myself asap and not leave it to chance that SSA will order one. It takes awhile to get an appt with the better NEUROS. It may be a waste of time if i they ignore my current condition, that's the type of question the paralegal just doesn't really know how to answer and maybe i need to ask to speak to the attorney. would be nice to hear if they have won a case for someone like me in recent history.
thanks again!!