There are all kinds of information you can find out about the Social Security disability process through the Social Security Administration. The agency releases statistics related to disability claims all the time.
Recently Social Security released information related to attorneys fees that Social Security had to pay related to claims filed in federal court.
The Social Security disability process is one that is difficult to get approved for. Most initial applications are denied and so are first-time appeals. When an applicant is denied twice they must request a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) and if the applicant receives an unfavorable decision from the ALJ the next step is to appeal the decision at the Appeals Council. If the Appeals Council denies the claim the final step is to appeal a decision in federal court. This is where attorney’s fees can come into play.
Filing a federal claim in court can be costly. There is a substantial filing fee cost of $400 and then if a claimant is successful with an attorney’s assistance Social Security could be on the hook for the attorney’s fees.
As of late Social Security has been paying a lot more in these types of cases. Through the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) the court can order Social Security to pay attorneys fees and these fees have more than doubled for Social Security since 2010. In 2010 total EAJA payments equaled more than $19.7 million, but that number increased to more than $40 million in 2016.
Some people might suggest that Social Security should not have to pay attorney’s fees, but then there would be no one left to represent claimants at the federal court level. And remember, these are successful cases where in federal court it was found Social Security was wrong in awarding disability claims for impairments that claimants suffered from. To take a look at how these types of fees have increased substantially within the last six years click here.
