BINGHAMTON SOCIAL SECURITY
ATTORNEY VS. ADVOCATE

Should You Get a Social Security Disability Attorney, or an Advocate

You’re looking for help getting Social Security Disability—and it’s crucial to get the right help because disability benefits can make a major difference in your life.

As a New York resident, you see a lot of groups advertising that they’ll help you win benefits. That includes local law firms, and it includes out-of-state companies saying they have lawyers or advocates for you.

Do you need a Social Security attorney to file for disability benefits? Is a disability advocate the same thing?

The Upstate New York disability lawyers at Lachman & Gorton Law Office created this page to help you understand your options.

We’ll go over why point by point, but we’re not going to hide the fact that we think you should go with a Social Security Disability lawyer, not an “advocate.”

Lawyers have more extensive training and the ability to handle more situations that may come up as you try to qualify for disability benefits.

A lawyer’s skills include cross-examining medical and job experts who testify at your disability hearing—which could be your most important and final chance to get key information in your record. And there’s no extra cost to get a fully licensed lawyer.

You’re not required to have a lawyer, or an advocate, when you seek disability benefits. But having someone experienced supporting your claim can increase your chances of getting through the process successfully, with monthly checks to stabilize your life.

The Lachman & Gorton disability attorneys have helped thousands of people in Binghamton, Elmira, Rochester and across Upstate New York.

What’s the Difference Between a Social Security Disability Attorney and Advocate?

This is what you get with a Social Security Disability attorney:

• Someone with extensive, high-level training—a person with a law degree.

• Someone who holds a professional license.

• Someone educated in administrative law, the type of law that governs Social Security Disability.

• Someone with advanced training in handling evidence, like the medical evidence you’ll need for your disability claim.

• Someone with advanced skills in cross-examining doctors or job experts in your hearing with a disability judge. (If you don’t do this right, you may miss the chance to get information that saves your case.)

• Someone experienced in writing legal briefs, which you need in advanced stages of appealing a disability benefits denial.

• An attorney licensed to practice in federal court, which is required if your case reaches the highest level of appeal.

With a Social Security Disability advocate, you get…

• A representative who went through a training program on managing the Social Security Disability process—no law degree.

• Someone who passed a test and received a certification.

• Someone who can represent you in a hearing but doesn’t have as much background in arguments, evidence and cross examination as a lawyer.

A disability advocate may say they can simply refer you to a lawyer when it’s time to go to federal court. It’s true but it may be too late.

At the federal level you make legal arguments for why your existing evidence justifies approval for benefits. But you mostly cannot add new evidence to your claim at this point.

If you didn’t get the statements you needed from the medical or workforce experts at your disability hearing, which already took place, you can’t change that now.

The experts who testify at disability hearings often push back on your claim that you can’t work and deserve disability benefits. A skilled attorney knows the right questions to ask back, getting them to acknowledge the reality of your situation.

People without legal training often miss this. Then later, at federal court, there’s nothing you can do.

A fully licensed disability lawyer can better set you up for success later in your case.

To find out more about your case and what to expect, get a FREE claim evaluation from the Lachman & Gorton disability lawyer team.

Lachman & Gorton Lawyers Are Known for Their Federal Disability Appeals

While we’re talking about federal court, you should know that Lachman & Gorton Law Office is well known in Upstate New York for handling federal disability cases.

Our clients and even other lawyers refer people to us when they need to appeal their disability benefits denials in court.

Advocates can’t do this. And it’s a level even some lawyers don’t handle. When you go to federal court, you go outside Social Security’s own system for appealing benefits and file a lawsuit against Social Security.

A federal judge reviews your case. You need a lawyer who is experienced at writing the legal briefs you file in federal court.

You generally don’t go in person, but your lawyer makes arguments in writing based on everything in your case so far about why Social Security was wrong to deny you.

Again, if you were already working with an attorney before this, not just a non-attorney advocate, you’re in better shape. An attorney who already knows you and your case can move fast.

After every disability denial, you have about 60 days to file your next appeal and keep claim alive.

Does it Cost More to Get a Disability Lawyer than an Advocate?

Getting a lawyer sounds expensive. When you’re out of work because you got hit with life-changing health problems, it doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you can afford.

But Social Security Disability law is a special kind of law.

You pay no more for an attorney than you do for an advocate: You pay no fee until you win.

The attorneys who help people get Social Security Disability benefits, and Social Security itself, understand you’re under financial strain.

To make it affordable for you to get a lawyer when you need disability benefits, they set up a “contingency fee” system that works like this:

• You don’t pay up front for a disability lawyer or advocate to work on your case.

• You never pay an advocate or attorney fee if you don’t win benefits.

• When you win benefits, your lawyer or advocate fee comes out of back benefits that you receive because you likely waited months or longer to be approved.

• Your attorney (or advocate) fee never comes out of your pocket.

• The fee doesn’t touch your monthly benefits going forward.

• The fee is limited to 25 percent of your back pay or a dollar cap that Social Security sets and periodically updates—whichever is less.

And here’s what counts to the most:

• The same plan decides both attorney fees and advocate fees. The cost isn’t any different to you.

That means you can get a person supporting your disability claim who has a law degree, a professional license, advanced legal training and ability to work in court—for the same price as a non-lawyer advocate.

Why not do it? Don’t take chances with your disability claim, which may be the key to stabilizing your life and moving forward.

With Lachman & Gorton, not only do you get disability lawyers, but you also get some of the most experienced disability lawyers in New York.

Contact us now for help with your Social Security Disability claim.