Disability approval ratings have been historically low. There are five potential stages for your disability application. At the initial stage, your chances of being approved are approximately 30%. At the reconsideration stage, your chance of approval drops drastically to 15%. At the hearing stage, your chances are increased to 44%. At the appeals council stage, your chance of either an approval or remand is 14% and in federal court, the chances of your case being remanded or approved are 45%. Pretty grim statistics.
With those statistics being so low, you should prepare yourself for a difficult fight to obtain benefits. More importantly, you should hire the best representative that you can. When figuring out which attorney to hire to represent you, it is fine to ask for that attorney’s approval rating. Obviously the higher the approval rating the better results that attorney is obtaining with their disability claims. As a general rule, any approval rating over 50% is good. But remember, a low approval rating does not always mean a less experienced disability attorney. It could mean that attorney is practicing in an area where disability benefits are approved at a very low rate. Each jurisdiction has different approval ratings for the jurisdiction. So when asking for your attorney’s approval rating also ask about the approval rating which you live. For jurisdictional ratings, check out the website. This site will give you a better idea of what areas approve at higher or lower rates.
