What does it mean for an attorney takes my case?

0:01 All right, again, this is attorney Anthony Reeves, and I'm going to give you another legal tip of the day. And my tip of the day is what does it mean if your attorney accepts your case? Okay? Had a question posed to me about what does it mean if you go to a social security representative, whether it be an attorney or not an attorney. Does that mean that there is a greater likelihood of success because the attorney has agreed or the representative has agreed to accept your case. That's a hard question.

0:33 Let me tell you why it's hard. But before I tell you why it's hard, let me kind of tell you the process that happens between you coming in the door and I'm talking to you and them deciding to take your case. Okay, every company or firm it works different a little differently, but typically what they do is they're going to probably screen the case. Mean, if you call in, they're going to see some basic information. For me is usually paralegal receptions to find out whether they can even help you at all.

1:02 Meaning, for instance, if you're calling in and you are on retirement benefits and you're wondering can you get social Security or maybe you're coming in because you have a fifteen thousand dollars overpayment. Things like that, Because if they know right out the gate there are certain cases they can't help you out with, then you know those are the ones that are going to kind of phase out. However, if they bring you in a lot of times, let me tell you what happens. Attorneys or representatives they really don't know, but they're going to ask you a few questions to alert them as to whether your case is worth taking a risk on. The key is not so much are they taking your case, meaning that if they accept your case, it means

1:42 it has a greater likelihood of than winning. It's not really what we're looking at it. We're looking at from a standpoint is is this a case worth taking a risk on? Meaning from what we're hearing, is there enough there that we could possibly be successful? Because there's no such thing as a guaranteed when So, to answer any of your question out there, if an attorney or a representative who takes my case, should I breathe a sigh of relief because they think it's a it's a case we're going to win. I would tell you not to look at it like that. Just look at it like this. If they take your case, it means that there is something in your file that makes them feel that it is worth taking a risk. Now keep in mind this because they read Some firms are different. There's typically kind

2:28 of two types of firms. There are the volume types and there's value type, and they typically kind of enter change when you say what do you mean by volume? What do you mean by value? Some firms operate on a volume basis, which means they just take everything. They just they really run it down unless there's something really really bad. That's nothing wrong with that because sometimes with and I tell people all the time, you can have great facts and win, I mean and lose bad facts and win. So you're not you don't mind taking a risk on those. Then there's value based value are the ones where you purposely don't take those cases that appears to be more work than necessary. So they both have pros and cons. Meaning some firms will

3:07 take a lot of cases and they can say, Okay, there's enough there, I can work with it. Some cases only take the ones that are really strong because they don't want to put as much effort into working for those cases. And there's nothing wrong with either approach. It just depends on the firm. No firm is going to tell you out right or I take a value approach or a volume approach. But each company or a firm has a mechanism by which they review case determine the risk. Okay, So then you say to yourself, so my attorney or representative has agreed to accept my case.

3:38 What do you mean by risk? Well, a lot of times you don't realize what they're asking for is telling them a little bit about whether your case is strong enough for them to take a risk. Give you a good example. Give you a good example. Let's say you come in to my office and you tell me, moh, mister Reeves, I got back problems.

3:58 And I say, okay, I'm gonna ask you a few questions. How old are you? If you tell me I'm on fifty five, you've caught my attention. Why because you're older? In the social security rates over the age of fifty is a little bit more favorable to you. I'm gonna say, Okay, how far do you go in school? Well? I did graduate. I dropped out in the ninth grade. Caught my attention again.

4:17 Why because under the regulations, the less education you have, the more favorable it is towards your case. I ain't telling you drop out of school, but as it relates to your case, that's going to catch my attention as well. Then I'm going to ask you about the kind of work you've done and you say, well, I've done is labor work. That's also going to catch my attention because those are kind of work skills jobs that don't have very many skills associated with them, so I don't have to worry about those skills transferring to the jobs. Then I'm going to ask you about your medicals, which really is going to tell me if it's worth taking a risk.

4:47 What do you mean? Well, let's say I ask you what medication are you taking and you say, well, I'm taking hyperdocoda on a purposet. Those are narcotic payment of medications, which means you're in severe modern to severe pain. To catch my attention, Well, what if you say I'm taking over the counter like Tyland on that bill. That's gonna tell me you're in pain. But unless you can give me a reason why you're not taking anything more severe, that's also gonna let me know that maybe your pain is not as severe as you say it is not saying it's not but it might be. Then I'm gonna ask you, well, what doctor are you going to see? Well, I'm going to Orthopedia doctor and pay management. Again, that lets me know you're in a serious condition. But then you say

5:25 I'm going to my internal doctor. I go to him or her once a year. Probably not gonna catch my attention a whole lot. Now, remember I'm as a representative, whether it be it's attorney or non attorney. We're not looking for a slam duck. Some attorneys are, some reps are, but generally most or not. We're looking at can you give me enough information about your case that it's worth the risk to explore whether your case is more significant or not. Here's one other thing you need to know. It's all about risk. I have had cases that seem like they were awesome. Because this is another question that comes up when people say, if they take my case, does that mean they can drop it later. As representatives, we

6:06 are not bound to have to keep your case now. We can't jop out to your detriment like I can't wait the day before hearing and say I child, I'm just not going to go to my number Levet for Yahalla, And you know I'm not going to do that. That's not going to happen a lot of you, especially for your attorneys, because ethically we can't do that.

6:24 But think of it like this. Sometimes people's cases get stronger over time, sometimes they get weaker. I'll give you a same example. Let's say, for instance, that example of the person's taking hydro codone, they're going to orthopedies, they're in their fifties. I'm like, oh, wonderful. But then when I get to medical records, I find out that the last time they went to an orthopedic doctor was two years ago. They haven't been to any doctor in the last two years. And the medication they're getting, they're not getting it prescribed. Their friend is giving it to them, and they're getting it illegally, and they're using illegal drugs in the process and drinking.

7:00 That case has just gone from a great case to a bad case all in one fell swoop. But look at the flip side. I've had a case where I'd never forget. I had a case where the facts were very thin. It was a kid's case. It was a case that was referred to me. The child had a two tests done, and one of the tests made them disable the other one didn't, and so I was like, oh man, I'm gonna have a hard time. But then I talked to a friend of mine who's a psychologist, who told me that the tests with the bad results that didn't help them was from a test that was no longer valid, so you couldn't use that one anymore. So once that disappeared, he now was eligible for disability. Had I not known that from talking to

7:41 her, I might have ran from the case. As in this case, when I spoke to the parents, a couple of attorneys didn't want to deal with it because of that. But it just so happened. I was fortunate enough to know someone who could tell me that that was a bad exam. I didn't know that I would have done the same thing too. This may be a long winded response, but ultimately this representatives are deciding whether to take your case. They're looking at your case and they're saying is it worth the risk. You're going to provide them information to let them know if it is.

8:09 But as they find out more, they'll be able to more definitively tell you if that risk was worth the risk or whether there's some problems with your case. So I will tell you don't worry so much about the fact of having the rep taking your case as it reflects to the type of case you have. Just be thankful that you have somebody who can walk with you through the process and going to educate you along the way if your case is really good or particularly really bad. Again, this is Anthony Reeves with the Reeves Law Firms, of course, from www. Dot Ree'sfirm dot com, or you can always hit me up at Legally Done Anthony Reeves dot com. Holidays are going to be coming up pretty soon. I'm going to try to cover

8:45 a couple of these topics. I've got a lot of comments for the last couple of days, a lot of them more than I expected. Keep them coming. I'm going to try to see if I can address my next video, probably beyond Sunday, and I'm going to try to jump on the medically determinable impairments as well as the pain standard talk about that a little bit more.

9:03 So. Keep in mind, for those of you who've posted me questions and comments, I'm going to get to them. Don't front I will. I may not be able to hit them until after the holidays, but I'm going to do the better best I can. Keep them coming, and as always, if I can help out, I definitely will have a wonderful holiday. Everybody