When a potential disability client contacts a Social Security disability law firm, a paralegal or assistant will usually do an "intake" interview with you, often by phone. The assistant will ask you questions about your age, your medical condition, how often you see your doctors, whether you've been hospitalized for your condition, and whether you are working. The law firm will then decide whether it's in their financial interest to take your case. Established law firms (as opposed to young solo lawyers just starting out) generally only take cases on which they have a solid chance of making an ample fee.
Here are some of the factors lawyers consider when they decide to take a case. Some of the factors, such as age or medical condition, you can't change, but with other factors, you might be able to take actions to make your case more attractive to a disability attorney.
Having what appears to be a severe medical condition will obviously help convince a lawyer to take your case, but there are certain conditions that some lawyers don't like to see in your medical file. Fibromyalgia is one of them. Historically it's been difficult to get benefits for fibromyalgia, though it's gotten easier since Social Security published a ruling on the subject. Also, applying for fibromyalgia along with similar conditions, especially a lesser known condition like Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, may signal to Social Security that you still haven't received the proper diagnosis.
Along those same lines, having medical records that list numerous medical conditions doesn't make you a shoe-in for disability benefits. (Similarly, unless you're taking medications reserved for the most serious medical conditions, listing lots of different medications that you take isn't going to convince Social Security that you're disabled—they see it all the time.)
Some claimants think that the more problems they list, the more likely it is they'll get benefits. To an extent, this can be true if a claimant has two or three very severe impairments, but alleging five or more moderate conditions may end up doing more harm than good. Having multiple issues can make a claimant seem like a complainer or worrywart rather than someone with one or two truly disabling conditions, and it also makes the medical records that much longer and harder to sort through.
Because medical records are complicated, and a lawyer isn't always in the best position to assess whether Social Security is likely to grant a medical allowance for a complex medical condition, lawyers often focus on other factors when deciding to take a case.
Some disability lawyers won't take your case until you've been denied benefits. They'd rather not help out at the application stage, but they'd be more than willing to represent you at the appeal hearing.
If you aren't currently seeing a doctor, and don't have a history over the past several years of seeing a doctor, you'll have a harder time finding a lawyer to take your case. Good medical records are probably the most important factor in getting an approval for benefits, and this is especially true for mental claims. If you aren't currently seeing a doctor or psychologist, start now, and try again to find a lawyer.
If you are currently working, this is a red flag to a disability attorney. Even though Social Security rules allow you to work and earn under a certain amount per month (generally $1,220 in 2019), some claims examiners and administrative law judges look askance at claimants who are earning $1,100, $900, or even $700 a month. If you applied for benefits and then tried working again, this is okay as long as you had to stop working after a short time due to your disability.
More disability claims are denied for financial or work credit eligibility reasons than for medical reasons. For SSDI, if you haven't worked for a numbers of years, meaning your "date last insured" is in the past, a lawyer won't likely take your case—unless you might be eligible for disability through SSI. For SSI, if you have significant income or assets, a lawyer won't be interested in your case. A lawyer might also try to estimate the amount of backpay you'll receive, as lawyers' fees are paid out of your backpay.
Most lawyers will not take clients with a current substance abuse problem, unless their medical conditions are extremely severe and quitting the alcohol or drug use very clearly wouldn't make their problems less disabling. Attorneys are usually open to taking claimants who have been in recovery for a significant period of time, whether or not their substance use caused their disability.
Technically, receiving unemployment benefits doesn't necessarily preclude someone from getting disability benefits, but some claims examiner or ALJs do take it into consideration. The reason: in many states, by applying for unemployment benefits, you're saying you're ready and willing to work. Many lawyers will stay away if you are currently receiving benefits.
Age may be the most important factor that lawyers use to decide whether to take a disability case. Disability attorneys like clients who are at least 50, if not 55. It's difficult for most disability claimants under 50 to get approved for benefits (except for those who have very severe, clear-cut disabling impairments that meet a medical listing). Claims examiners, medical consultants, and judges who work for Social Security may be more likely to think that a younger claimant can get better. There are also grid rules embedded in Social Security law that grant disability benefits to almost any claimant over the age of 50 who has been limited to sit-down work (walking or standing less than two hours a day), which make it a better bet for lawyers to take on clients who are over 50.
Also, the types of claims submitted by younger applicants differ. They file fewer musculoskeletal claims, fewer cancer claims, more injury claims, and more mental claims. Injury claims are more likely to be short term (and thus won't qualify), and mental claims such as anxiety, depression, and intellectual disorder (low I.Q.) have lower-than-average approval rates. (The second most common claim for those under 35 is intellectual disorder, and Social Security has made it very difficult in recent years to get approved for it. Autism spectrum disorders are an exception here, as long as a claimant hasn't worked successfully in the past. Read more about approval rates based on age and approval rates for mental claims in our disability survey results.)
In short, for a lawyer to take on clients under 50, their medical condition has to be more severe than for those over 50. You might ask the attorney or paralegal you spoke to for details on why they don't think you have a good case. If it has to do with your medical records, recent work, substance use, or receipt of unemployment benefits, you can address these issues before continuing with your claim. And don’t assume that another lawyer would turn down your case too; some lawyers can be more selective in the types of cases they take on.
