Intelligent, Aggressive Representation For The Injured And Disabled
Interim BenefitsAfter a hearing with an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), the ALJ will issue a decision on whether or not a person applying for Social Security disability is disabled. If the ALJ finds the Claimant to be disabled, the ALJ will issue a Fully Favorable...
NEW VA CLAIMS PROCESSBeginning March 24, 2015, the VA will institute a new process for filing claims for disability compensation. The new VA claims process will require the use of standardized forms to begin a claim. The new policy is a change from the informal claims...
Administrative Law Judges Sue Social Security Administration Over QuotasIn a federal lawsuit filed on April 18, 2013, the Association of Administrative Law Judges challenged the Social Security Administration and its imposition of an agency-wide quota requiring all...
EFFECTIVE DATE AND VA CLAIMS FOR HEARING LOSSIn the case of Swain v. McDonald, No. 14-0947, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) reversed a Board of Veterans' Appeals' (Board) decision which assigned an incorrect effective date for Veteran's claim for...
Vocational Expert Testimony in a Social Security Disability Hearing Vocational Expert testimony appears in almost every hearing involving Social Security disability benefits. A Vocational Expert (VE) is an independent contractor with the Social Security Administration...
SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY AND UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITSOften times, clients ask if applying for and receiving unemployment benefits will affect his or her claim for Social Security disability. The short answer is yes. Social Security policy, however, indicates that...
UPDATE TO AGENT ORANGE REGISTRY The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs maintains a list of ships that were presumptively exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam Era. The VA has recently updated the list of ships that operated in Vietnam to add new ships, expand...
Social Security Benefits available to Minor Dependent ChildrenUnder the Social Security Act, monthly benefits can be paid to children of insured workers who have either died, become disabled, or retired. To be eligible, a child must be the biological or adopted child...
The Department of Defense has agreed to reconsider bad-paper discharges for Vietnam veterans and other past war veterans who may have suffered from combat-related PTSD and received other than honorable discharges. The Department of Defense has agreed to give "liberal...
The Department of Veterans Affairs recently announced that it processed 1.3 million disability compensation and pension claims in fiscal year 2014 - the highest number in VA history. The number of claims processed in fiscal year 2014 surpassed the number of claims...