Effective January 21, 2010, the individual with initial jurisdiction for authorizing a fee under the fee petition process may authorize a fee up to and including $10,000.00.
Mar 29, 2010
ALJ Authority To Approve Fee Petitions Raised To $10,000
From the Office of Social Security's Chief Administrative Law Judge:
This is dated January 21 but was just posted online in the last week.
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9 comments:
If SSA is going to be in the business of paying attorneys, everything should be a fee petition. That way they have to prove they actually did something to earn the fee.
Jilted claimant, much?
It might not be a jilted claimant.
The passive reps are definitely out there. They seem to just babysit their client files, then go into a frenzy right before the hearing.
There are also reps with bad reputations. Claimants don't really have a good way to assess a firm offering SSD representation. They might not even choose their rep if they sign on with a larger firm, or the hearing rep might not be assigned until the last minute.
It might be more fair to disability claimants if these types of reps could be consistently paid less. Total shame that fee petitions are such a drain on agency resources.
As long as the NOD says Fully Favorable, everyone is happy. Whether the rep is passive, active, or somewhere in between, they know they only get paid if they win. Everyone has a different method of winning a case. My firm takes a more passive approach but we win over 90% of our cases. There are plenty of firms and reps out there that will be buzzing with activity for months but still lose the case because either (A) they don't know what they're doing, or (B) they take terrible cases that will never be granted.
There certainly some firms that do virtually nothing.
Call to get information so the case can be paid on the record? Wasted call. They aren't going to do anything until their fee is maxed out despite such behavior being a violation of the Model Code. Only time you get anything from them is at hearing or worse, after the hearing.
There are others that work hard for the money. Request information and they hustle to get it. Get a file with a lot of medical and they submit a summary of the good and bad, and brief why they think it should be paid.
Most fall somewhere between.
Please explain the 10k cap vs the 6k cap. When does each apply?
The 10K cap applies to fee petitions; the 6K cap applies to fee agreements.
Most SS attorneys don't earn a quarter of what they're paid.
Kudos to your firm. A passive approach is the best business practice. It minimizes the losses.
But, the firms with the best business practices aren't necessarily the ones with the best attorneys/reps.
For example, you could achieve a 90% "win" rate by being selective about taking cases, whether on the evidence or your own assessment of a prospective client's credibility.
In my opinion, the best attorney/rep is the type who can change the ALJ's inclination toward paying the case. But, it's relatively rare for an ALJ to directly communicate that your involvement was outcome-determinative.
Unless it's been clearly communicated that you "won" the case, it's tough to say whether it was you, your client or the medical evidence.
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