Often, people fail to hire a disability attorney because they believe that an attorney’s fees must be paid up-front to represent them throughout their disability claims process. However, that is not true.
When you schedule a free consultation with our disability attorney there is no money owed up front and no fee for the consultation. There is no fee to represent you on a Social Security Disability claim, until you are approved.
If you are approved for Social Security Disability benefits, the laws are specific for how Social Security disability lawyers are paid for representing clients. Our fee is limited to 25% of the past-due benefits, sometime referred to as backpay, that you are awarded. That payment is capped at $7,200. So, for example, if you are approved for disability benefits that are backdated for two years and your benefits for those two years come out to $36,000, one-fourth of that amount would equal $9,000.
However, because of the fee cap, our attorney will only get $7,2000 for handling your claim. If your backpay totals $10,000, our lawyer would receive only $2,500, which is 25% of your backpay.
When you hire a disability lawyer for your Social Security disability case, you will complete paperwork including documents that specify the attorney’s fees and how much you will pay your representative in the event your claim is approved.
One of those documents is a contingency fee agreement. A contingency fee means our fee is based on the outcome of your case. Meaning if you get awarded benefits with backpay, we will get a fee. If you are not approved, we receive no fee.
The Social Security Administration will review the fee agreement and make sure it meets the guidelines and that our attorney will only receive the amount we are entitled to receive. The fee agreement is then filed by the SSA so that when you are approved for benefits our attorney’s fees will be taken out and sent directly to us and the funds that you are entitled to receive are sent directly to you.
What happens if you are approved for benefits but there are no past-due benefits, or backpay, awarded? If there is no backpay to award, our attorney will not be paid a fee.
Backpay is calculated by the SSA and is determined by the date your disability began, which is limited to a maximum 12 months prior to the date the disability application was filed.
There is no fee to consult or hire our disability attorney because the fee is not paid until you have been approved for benefits. Because of this, our attorneys only take cases that they believe meet the qualifications for disability benefits, either by the medical guidelines, or the by the medical-vocational allowance and using a residual functioning capacity worksheet. If you are ready to file for Social Security disability, call our office, or take our Free Online Disability Evaluation, to determine if you are eligible for benefits.