I am spending the weekend at the Virginia Trial Lawyers conference in Williamsburg.  I had the pleasure of listening to Simone Campbell, the sister on the bus, a Catholic nun who had traveled the country promoting social justice.  She spoke passionately about the needs of our society and the need to maintain our social safety net.  In her travels she had the opportunity to meet with so many people who were working hard to make a living on minimum wage.  She was a strong proponent of trial lawyers devoting their efforts to making our communities stronger and protecting our client’s rights.

Many people come to my office after having their social security claim denied.  They want to know is it worth it to appeal.  Many social security claims are denied initially but benefits are awarded on appeal.  The appeal does take time and lots of paperwork but if you are unable to work and you have medical evidence to support your claim, you should appeal.

One of the most difficult things I have to do in my practice is to tell a prospective client that I can't help them because they got hurt at work, and before speaking to a lawyer they gave a statement to the insurance company which makes their case impossible to win.  Talking to the insurance adjuster without knowing anything about Virginia compensation is a bad idea, that statement can be the beginning of the end.

You are unable to work; you have paid into the Social Security system all your life.  Maybe your doctor tells you to apply for Social Security, so you fill out all the paperwork, and there is a lot, and file your claim.  After doing all that you are surprised to get a denial by Social Security.  The letter that denies, lists the medical reports in the file and you realize that they did not even have your doctor's reports.  You're mad and you're discouraged, it is worth spending the time to appeal?  For most cases the answer is YES!

In Virginia when your claim is denied by Social Security, you must appeal the denial to the Reconsideration level.  To appeal you have to appeal through the Social Security Administration web site, www.ssa.gov, and you have to complete the Disability Report Appeal.  If you get denied at Reconsideration, which is likely, you will need to appeal to the Administrative Law Judge level.  You should appeal to the ALJ level.  At the ALJ level the Administrative Law Judge will more carefully consider your case.

While filing a Social Security claim and the appeals of a denial can involve a lot of paperwork and time many denials are reversed on appeal, don't despair file that appeal or get someone to do it on your behalf.

You have been injured at work, it is not your fault, or maybe it is, but it happened at work so it must be covered by workers' compensation, right?  Not necessarily, just because you have been hurt at work does not mean that you will be covered under workers' compensation.  In Virginia, your injury has to be an identifiable incident that arises out of and in the course of your employment.

 Lets talk about the first requirement, a specific injury.  So many times in my career I have had injured workers tell me they were hurt after moving boxes or loading bags.  In order to be covered under Virginia law you have to be able to identify a specific time when you were lifting a box or a bag.  To be covered, you must have been injured while lifting or moving ONE item; not two, not twenty.

 For workers with heavy jobs who often suffer aches or pain while doing their job, because they have had pain in the past, they think that the pain will go away.  When they wake up the next day in pain they worry; now they realize they are hurt and did not report an injury.  It does not make any difference that you continue working after you get hurt thinking that you will be better.  What matters is that you can remember that the pain started when you picked up, or moved one item.  If you make the mistake of telling an insurance adjuster in a recorded statement that you don't remember what you were doing when you had pain or that you injured yourself over the course of 15 minutes while doing your job, your injury will not be covered under workers' compensation.