Jess Leventhal Hon. Roger Schwartz Alan Polonsky |
SSD Determination Process: An Inside Look
Attorneys, Judge & SSA Manager Explain |
Does a Social Security disability claimant with cancer get automatic approval for benefits? How do attorneys respond to claimants who say they don't need a lawyer because they're a "shoo in" ? Tonight on WFMZ-TV 69 at 7PM on The American Law Journal host Christopher Naughton welcomes Alan Polonsky of New Jersey's Polonsky & Polonsky, Pennsylvania practitioner Jess Leventhal of Leventhal Sutton & Gornstein, and the Social Security Administration's Hon. Roger Schwartz and Mark Bacak. The panel examines updates in the Social Security disability application process, including the role of specific illnesses in the determination phase. How often do claimants show up on the attorney's doorstep saying "I have (illness), I'll get benefits"? "Everyday" say Polonsky and Leventhal. "It's wrong. Disability is not about what condition you have, but the effect on your ability to work" says Polonsky. Then why have the manual that lists specific impairments? "It's an easy way at the initial level to determine whether you are or are not disabled. Once you get past a certain step it's a pigeon-hole system. But it is a system with provisions for each impairment that may or may not move the approval process forward" says Leventhal. The American Law Journal airs weekly on Mondays at 7PM on WFMZ-TV 69 seen throughout the tri-state region. For more information, go to www.LawJournalTV.com.
Next week: "Blowing the Whistle on Big Pharma: Big Fines, Big Crimes." |
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