Attorney Fee

[Wife of Rick]

I have been reading where people are saying that attorney gets 25 percent of the award. Does that mean 25 of the back pay or 25 from every month?

[thelegendlc]

If you hire an attorney for an appeal and you are successful, he is entitled to 25% of the back award or $6,000 whichever is less. This information is from the SSA Disability website.

[dck696]

And this is exactly what my disability lawyer told me. That 25% or $6,000 info is correct.

[Rich Feingold]

Right, everyone. This is what the standard fee agreement says. There can exceptions to this, however, for example, if the Commissioner of Social Security decides to raise the fee cap. Some fee agreements state that if the representative has to do a 2nd hearing, then they can file a fee petition for additional fees. Or a fee agreement can state that if the representative can ask for an increase in the fee if an extraordinary amount of work was done. Or a fee agreement can be based upon a straight hourly basis, for example, in an overpayment case. But in general, if the representative wishes to be paid through the "fee agreement" process, the fee is 25% of the past due benefits or $6,000, whichever is less.

If you want to read more about the fee agreement process, here is a link to SSA's website, http://www.ssa.gov/representation/fee_agreements.htm.

Rich

[donnainct]

I wonder why the attorneys here in CT take a third of the amount awarded.Is it different in each state?

[Rich Feingold]

Hi, Donna. I am surprised to here this. Are you sure that this is for Social Security disability claims?

Rich