How can a Social Security disability lawyer assist you in Ohio? Why would you want the help of an attorney when applying for disability benefits?
In the state of Ohio, most of us in the workforce, pay taxes into the Social Security fund. Presumably, these funds pay for the benefits that are accessible to us in the case of the onset of a disability.
In Ohio, nearly 70 percent of applications for Social Security Disability benefits are denied when they are first filed. However, this number declines when appeals are taken into consideration.
If you apply for disability benefits, and the Social Security Administration (SSA) denies your claim, you can attend your disability hearing. An Administrative Law Judge will preside over this hearing. As an Ohio resident, this disability hearing will happen at one of six ODAR (Office of Disability Adjudication and Review) offices. The locations are Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo, Columbus, Cleveland, and Akron.
Having a Social Security disability attorney assist you at your disability hearing can speed up an often cumbersome and lengthy process. Most hearings take a full year or more to process. Even with the help of attorneys, success rates for disability claims are under 50% across the state. Less than half of claims are accepted and paid. Depending on your situation, a lawyer could help increase your odds of a favorable outcome.
It is important to remind ourselves that most of us pay into the Social Security fund with our payroll taxes. Ever since our first jobs at age 16 or 17, our employers have taken money from our paychecks to support the fund. In the politicized climate surrounding Social Security, the phrase “entitlements” is often used to describe funds such as these. In actuality, these are investments that all of us make as workers, to make sure we can be covered in cases of injury, declining health, or unforeseen medical conditions.
Navigating the waters of these bureaucracies is a challenge. For good reason, the Social Security Administration sets a high standard. There is a high bar any application must cross to achieve payment of benefits. The claim must be clear, and undeniable. The evidence presented with each claim must be orderly and thorough, and it must leave no questions unanswered.
It is possible to make your claim with enough clarity to achieve the payment of disability benefits, but by no means is it a foregone conclusion that your claim will fulfill those Social Security Administration standards.
Across Ohio’s six ODAR (Office of Disability Adjudication and Review) offices, there are 82 Administrative Law Judges. Each judge approves a different ratio of claims, and each has a unique approach to taking on disability hearings.
The Social Security disability lawyers at Clements, Taylor, Butkovich & Cohen LPA, Co. know the histories of these 82 judges, and will be able to advise you on how best to adjust your claim to try to meet with that judge’s specifications.
Here are some of the facts about Ohio’s six ODAR offices.
The national average for hearing wait times is more than 17 months, but in the Ohio offices, that wait tends to be even longer. Columbus’s ODAR wait time averages 20 months, while the Cincinnati ODAR has an average wait of 21 months. That is nearly two years before the average case gets its day in court.
The cases take a long time to process as well. Cases in Columbus, Dayton, and Cincinnati all exceeded 600 days in average processing time, which exceeds the national ODAR average of 577 days.
If you would like to set up a free consultation, one of our experienced attorneys would be happy to take time with you and hear the details of your disability claim.