Charlotte North Carolina Legal Blog

Receiving an unfavorable decision on a Social Security disability benefits claim after enduring the extremely long wait to have a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge can be devastating. However, there is one final option.

If an Administrative Law Judge chooses to side with the original determination of the state agency who issued a denial of benefits, he or she will issue an unfavorable decision after a claimant has appeared before the court and presented their case. Many claimants do not realize that, even after this second denial, there is still one more appellate step that can be utilized. During this step, the claim is considered by the Appeals Council.

The most common type of workers' compensation claims arise from injuries suffered in a workplace accident or work that is repetitive in nature or . Occupational diseases are also common in the workplace, oftentimes more so than people realize, and can form the basis of a workers' compensation claim.

An occupational disease is one that develops after a worker is exposed to something in the workplace. These diseases become chronic ailments and often require lifelong treatment. One cause could be exposure to toxic chemicals. For example, a coal miner may develop cancer from breathing in asbestos. A hairdresser may develop a respiratory disease from breathing in chemicals contained in hair products and dyes.

It is no secret applying for Social Security Disability Insurance takes a long time. In Charlotte, it takes an average of 20 months for an applicant to get a hearing with a Social Security Administration hearing officer.

These delays are caused by several factors, but if you are living with a terminal illness or condition, you may not have nearly two years to wait for needed SSDI benefits.

When a Social Security Disability claimant receives a decision denying benefits, he or she is eligible to request a hearing before an administrative law judge. It is here that a claimant will present their case and offer any additional evidence to substantiate a claim. While an attorney is not required to complete this process, it is highly advisable that a claimant not go into a disability hearing alone for several reasons.

First, the hearing will contain substantial legal jargon which is quite often difficult for a party with no judicial knowledge to understand. Though a claimant may walk into a hearing room feeling confident and ready, it does not take long to realize that he or she may be in over their head. While all administrative law hearings follow the same process, each individual judge may go about that process differently. With some judges, by the time a claimant realizes an attorney would have been beneficial, it may be too late to continue the hearing and retain representation. It would then be the claimant's sole responsibility to put on their own case and convince the judge that he or she is unable to perform substantial gainful activity.