Kimberley Cole's blog

When a claimant hires an attorney, Social Security actually governs how they are allowed to charge a fee. Social Security goes one step further and actually withholds the fees directly from the retroactive benefits that are due a client and sends the balance of those funds after they deduct the fees. For this service they charge a service fee to the attorney (never the claimant).

Wow! It has happened again. I met with a potential client who has a very winnable Social Security Disability Claim. So why didn’t she win? Well one of the reasons could be that the Social Security Disability attorney she hired decided 3 weeks before the claimant’s disability hearing not to represent the claimant any longer. So the claimant ended up at the Social Security Disability hearing by herself, with no representation. 

When I first meet with a potential client, one of the biggest hurdles I find that I have to help them over is their own idea that they are asking for a handout. Our clients come from all walks of life, and for the most part have worked since they were in their early teens and never thought about the disability program that Social Security Administration makes them pay for.  

In my dual role, I sometimes feel like Glenda from the Wizard of Oz, as I start a client on their way down the not always golden road through the land of the Wicked. Like Glenda, I “look” in every now and then to make sure that our clients are still on the “yellow brick road” to reach the Land of Oz, or what we call “The Payment Center”!