This was a issue that came up in one of our Tampa, Florida cases recently when an ALJ denied benefits and relied on his own opinion rather than the opinions of a treating physician. The rule is that an ALJ cannot rely on his own opinion or even a (non-medical) lay opinion […]
Unfortunately, Florida has some of the longest processing times in the country. Due to recent statistics, they are as follows: St. Petersburg, Clearwater: 522 days Orlando, Ocala: 541 days Tampa: 564 days Tallahassee: 575 days Jacksonville: 602 days Ft. Myers: 633 days Ft. Lauderdale: 643 days Miami: (Last of […]
The Board of Trustees report for SS and Medicare was released in July. It is apparent that one of the reasons that ALJs have become more stringent in awarding benefits is that there is an immediate need to shore up the Disability Insurance Trust Fund. As presently calculated, the depletion […]
Many older workers who can still do light duty work are still entitled to Social Security Disability Benefits. If you are over 62 and disabled it is wise to take your early retirement benefits and file for Social Security Disability. The two will offset eventually and you will get on […]
We recently won a case where our client had only a few hundred dollars of earnings during the time that she had claimed disability. These earnings can be problematic since nobody at the DDS, or state level will send a claimant a request to explain such earnings and the consequence […]