What can I do to speed up my Disability case?

0:01 Good day, good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time it is that you're listening to this, I hope it's a good day for you. My name is Anthony Reeves, and today is the opportunity for me to give you another legal beat tip of the day. Now, today's topic is probably gonna be a little bit more serious than I normally have. I try to keep a lot of my presentations light, but for those of you who are used to me being light, I'm gonna be a little bit harder than I'm used to being, So don't take it personally. Today we're gonna talk about what you can do to speed up your case, and more importantly, letting you know what's going on that may result in you being able to speed up your case. I can tell you that, out of the years that

0:41 I've done so security disability, people will always call me and say, counselor what can I do to speed up my case? And invariably I give them two responses, usually responses that the deal they don't like. First, I ask, well, are you dying? Usually that response is met with will no, I feel like well I feel like I'm dying in bash no no no, no, no no, no, what you feel like, are you dying? And then the second one is are you homeless? Are you getting ready to be put out in the streets? You know? Are you evicted? I mean, are you getting the eviction notice and they are coming to your house? Is a sale foreclosure sign on front of your property?

1:17 You know? Do you have bills that are just so astronomical in the thousands of dollars that you can show Social Security? And almost every time I give that, you can hear people's kind of this deep sigh, like I'm still having a tough time. Isn't that enough? Here's where the situation lies, and let's take each situation one at a time. First, whenever I ask the question are you dying? Under Social Security regulations, individuals who are categorized as terminally ill or what we call terry cases, are given a little bit due difference, because, let's be real, if somebody is about to die, they don't have a whole lot of time to wait for Social Security.

1:55 And that's not trying to be funny, that's being real. Meaning I've represented a number of people who've had term cancer or they're in the final stages of AIDS, and literally they only had months to live and they were in the social Security process, and social Security tends to move faster when they know you're terminal, meaning you're going to die very soon. Now does that mean every case is like that. No, I've had a few terry cases that literally, for whatever reason, took longer than they were supposed to. But that's the first That's the reason why I asked the question, are you dying?

2:23 Because the reality is if your case is considered a terry case, they'll expedite the processing of your case. Now, keep in mind, when I say terry case, mean you've been diagnosed with a condition that's going to cause you to lose your life. People. I know if you have a hard time breathing because of COPD. People I know if you have back problems. People.

2:45 I know that if you have asthma and all kinds of diabetes and all those problems, they can cause complications. I understand that. But unless you've got a condition that is outright and you're a doctor said they expect you to have a short life, or more importantly, there's a condition that's known like cancer and aids and forth, or a brain tumor or something like that that magnitude that is known is going to cause you to lose your life. That's going to be only instances of social security. Consider those cases terry cases.

3:13 Now, most people don't fall in that category. Most people fall into the category of what I call dire need or critical needs cases. Those are cases where individuals are in such a tough financial spot. They're in a tough situation that means they're about to be homeless. They're about to be evicted for clothes, thousands of thousand dollars of bills, things of that nature. They have no ability for food, they have no ability for shelter. Those are the situations where individuals find themselves being what we call diar need cases. And let's keep a couple of things in mind. First, if you think you're in a dire need situation, you have to prove it, meaning just saying I'm about to lose my home means nothing. Got to show it by paperwork.

3:58 You got to show the foreflow papers, the bankruptcy paper, the eviction papers. It's not enough to say that I'm a homeless shelter. If you've got some type of documentation from a shelter saying you're staying there. That helps, so you have to prove it via documentation. So when you call your representative telling them that you're at a tough spot you need to rush your case, don't be offended because they're telling you they need documentation. They need it in order to prove it. That's the first thing. Second of all, just because you're in a dire need does not necessarily mean right out the gate you're going to get your case sped up. The reality is is that most people who apply for Social Security are in a dire need situation. Remember you're in

4:40 this situation because you can't work because of your medical condition. Well, everybody who applies for disability can't work because of the medical conditions, so they're probably in that same spot. And then, finally, keep this last thought in mind. If you're lucky enough to have your case be put in what we call a critical need basis, a critical need basis, it may speed your case up, but do not put an internal timeline as to what you think it should be sped up, meaning you might get moved ahead, because ultimately, whenever you're asking your case to be sped up, you're asking your case to be moved in front of somebody else who's waited longer than you, and that may happen, but that does not necessarily mean you're going to get the

5:18 result faster than you would like. Meaning just because you put in a critical need you get to approved for it today, it doesn't mean you're gonna get a hearing today. That may mean, as opposed to waiting eight months, you might get your hearing in two months, So keep that in the vacuum mind. And one final thing congressional inquiries, because I have people ask me all the time, but what if I contact my congressman or my senator and get my case review by bimble? That's feed up. It really just depends because if your case is already moving quickly as it is, that's one thing.

5:48 Okay, if your case is already moving quickly as it is, that's one thing. But if you ask for congressional inquiry, will it speed your case? It might, it might not. That's a big time crapshoot. It just depends on the local office or the hearing office you're dealing with, depends on where your case is. Because the simple fact of the matter is is that if going to your congressmen or senator would figure it up. Everybody would do that same thing, so just kind of keep that in the back of your mind. People. Social Security process is long, it's frustrating, it's tiring, and any edge you can do to try to help your case move along, most people will try to do. But trust when I tell you, at the end of the day, it's just the nature of the

6:30 beasts. You gotta go through it. This is Anthony Reeves as always. If you want to find out more to legal betips, go to Legalbett Anthony Reeves dot com or visit me at www dot Reevesfirm dot com. Have a wonderful week.