When you decide to sue the Social Security Administration

0:00 Good morning everyone. Good morning, and it is me Anthony Reads, and I'm here to talk to you a little bit about what happens if you decide to sue the Social Security Administration. Here's where it gets a little tricky. Most of you, if you've been applying for Social Security disability benefits, are probably familiar with the administrative process. That means you've probably been sent forms, you probably had to go to see doctors. You've also probably been denied a few times, and so you're probably used to dealing with Social Security. So that process in itself usually takes about two years. In its entirety, it means you've applied for the benefits, you've gotten denied once, maybe twice.

0:41 You go before here before a judge. That didn't work out, so then you appeal to the Appeals Council. Then that doesn't work out. Then you get this letter that basically tells you you have a right to file a civil action. Some people don't understand what does that mean. Well, basically, what it means is that you're going to sue Security Administration. Now, soci Security Administration at one point in time had the distinction of being the most sued organization in the country, which is not too surprising based on the share volume of cases that come through. But let me tell you what usually happens, because a lot of times people are like, what happens to my case?

1:18 What happens to my old case? And my money? What happens? What happens? And I'm like, Okay, here's how it usually shakes. Usually, when you get denied by a judge at that point in time, most people will then apply file a new application. While that new application is pending, the old one goes through the Appeals Council, and then finally we get to this level where if the Appials Council denies you, you have a right to sue the Social Security Administration. What usually happens at that point is you have to go into federal court and basically the federal courts wherever you're located at the time, whether it be it doesn't matter, because there's a federal court in every state in the Union. And then what happens is you file a

1:55 complaint with the court. You have to basically server. You're basically serving the Attorney General, the United States attorney who's going to be arguing the case, and the commissioners soid security, and then what will happen is they will file an answer and then provide a what we call a transcript of what happened at the lower level, what happened before the judge that's going to usually have the application all of the medical records and non medical records that the judge had before them when you had your hearing. Then what happens is your attorney or yourself be representing yourself, will then write a legal brief describing what the judge did wrong. Here's where people sometimes lose sight of it. When you're in federal

2:40 court. The judges there are not making a determination of whether you're disabled or not. That's not what they're doing. They're deciding whether or not the judge made an error of law that would justify them sending the case back to the judge to do it again. Hear me when I say the judge, when they're at the federal court level, they're not there to decide whether you're disabled.

3:06 They're there to determine whether or not the judge who heard your case at the administrative level got the law wrong. If they got the law wrong, they're gonna send it back to the judge to look at again. Now, one or two things will usually happen. In this particular instance, you're usually going to have either the judge is going to agree with the Commission of soci Security Administration that the judge down at the lower level got it right. At that case, the only thing you have left is to appeal up to the Circuit Court of Appeal. And then that's a whole different level. And then if you lose there, you can try to go to the Supreme Court.

3:40 They don't always take cases, they choose which ones to take. That's a whole different beast altogether. If you win at the federal court level, then what happens is it gets sent back to the judge. If you file the new application, maybe you've gotten approved on a new application. Then what happens is that those two applications, the old one and the new one, will get solidated into one big application. Is what they'll look at. Now, here's the one thing I tell people all the time, and when it's at the federal court level, a couple of things. One you cannot rush to judge. You know, It's amazing how many times when you're an administrative level you'll send documents saying I'm about to be foreclosed, I'm about to be bankrupts,

4:18 I'm about to be evicted, and I need you to speed this up. And the Social Security Administration has procedures in place that allows it the luxury and the ability to be able to expedite claims. At the federal level, there is no rushing a federal court judge, not like not like the administrative level. The administrative level, those federal judges have certain guidelines that can follow to determine whether or not it's a case that can be expedited. At the federal court level, you're not looking at that same luxury. The second thing you need to be aware of is that while your case is pending, you can file a new application, So just in case you hadn't done that when you got denied by the judge the first time, you can still file a

5:00 new application. Third, if you get approved at the federal court level, it has to go back to the same judge. If the same judge has not had a chance to hear the case twice, the regulations require that that judge be given the same opportunity. So it's not one of those things if you had a judge that you thought was bad. You were like, well, can we get a new judge? You, no, you can't.

5:20 The reg say that every judge has at least two chances to get it right, and then it'll go back back. Then it'll go back. Now here's the final thing that a lot of people ask me. Well, let's say the judge at the federal level sends it back, that same judge denies it, and it gets denied again by the appeals council. Can you appeal it back in the federal court. Yes, you can. That's the one thing that's nice about the regulations. It's not at bar. It doesn't mean like if the federal court judge denies you at the federal court level, sends it back to the federal and then a straight up level and you get denied, you're done. No, you still have the ability to what we call exhaust your appeals, meaning you can appeal as long as you can. So it's

6:00 finally decided. Now it's a wrap. Let's shut it down. You're down. So keep those things in mind. One other point I want to bring up is the fact that once you get into federal court, the appeals process is slow. Were you just kind of put that out there. For those of you who are like, could it be slower than the administrative process?

6:18 It's not designed to be slower, but the reality is is that it does take a while. So I want you not to freak out when you're like, well, what's going to happen now? After both sides have argued their case before the court, the judge will then make a decision. You just have to wait. I know you hate that you've heard it all through the administrative process about that lovely phrase hurry up and waiting, But unfortunately hate to be the bare or bad news. You got to do that here too.

6:42 But keep in mind one thing, the administration and the process is designed to give you the ability to fight as much as you possibly can, so please, by all means, take advantage of it if you feel that you have a valid claim. My name's Anthony reads everybody. Hopefully that helps you out if you're thinking about suing the Social Security Administration. For more, check out my blog www dot legalbet dot Anthony Reeves dot com, or you can check me out at the Theeves Lawfirm www dot reesfirm dot com, dedicated to representing the disabled and the discriminator