Advice needed

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I need some advice. As you know I was approved recently for my SSDI. I don't give much of the credit to the hard work of my lawyer as he didn't do much of anything except print the papers needed to file the appeal of the internet, send letters to the drs. and meet with me twice in two years.

When I got the paperwork stating that I was approved it has one page in there that states something like I can appeal the fee agreement I have with the lawyer. My lawyer is set to get 25% which we figure amounts to about $4000 or more.

I don't think he deserves this. I'll tell you why. After the initial meeting and all the signing of papers, he pretty much dropped off the radar. He never contacted me, I had to call him all the time, I wrote to my Congressman who helped me by sending my paperwork to the Dept. of Adjudication and Review. When a woman there called my lawyer 3 times, he didn't return her phone calls!! It wasn't until she sent a letter to ME that I had any clue what was going on and I called him only to find out that he had gotten the letter but didn't read it!!! This was on Good Friday!

What she was looking for were the treatment notes from my drs. going back to July 2006 when I was dx. My lawyer called her and called me back. He then tells ME that I have to go and collect all of these papers in 3 days time because that's when he said he would have them by!!! I was hysterical to say the least!!

I called my family dr. who thank goodness was open on Good Friday and who had notes on my depression, anxiety, and MS dx from all the drs. I had seen. I also called my therapist and my psychiatrist. I was able to pick up the notes from my family dr. that afternoon (it took about 1/2 hour). When I called my lawyer back and told him I had them and asked if I could drop them off to him, it was about 3 then, he told me that the office was closed and he was going home!!! OH MY GOD, are you kidding me?????

So the next week I get the notes from my talk therapist and drop those and the drs. notes off to him, thinking he is going to send them right out. I figure I did all the running around, the least he can do is pay for the postage. I have to request the hospital records from my stay in Nov. and my psychiatrist sends her notes out to be transcribed. When I get those I take those down to him as well. In the meantime of all this, I have called the woman and the board of Adjudication and Review myself and make sure that she knows I am getting these records and ask her not to put my file back into the stack for a court date. She is very nice and says as long as she knows it's being worked on she won't.

The next week, on a Thursday, I call my lawyers office just to make sure that everything was sent out. His secretary assures me that as soon as they get something in they send it right back out. I tell her that he sat on messages for over 2 weeks and never called back that woman and never opened her letter until I called and read it TO HIM. Again she said they were sent out. OK!! Saturday afternoon the mail comes. There is a letter from my lawyers office, basically just the cover page of what they sent to the woman in Syracuse, saying that here is all of the records she requested. The letter was dated the day AFTER I called!!! Can you say TICKED OFF????!!!

So now I have been approved, got my letter May 24th which was a Saturday. Guess who has not called me??? Guess who gets his money first??? I know if I were to fight it I will end up waiting again for this money and we really need it. My Dad says to just let it go, but boy it burns my you know what. My psychiatrist says that I should write to the judge that approved my disability and to the law board or whatever you call it and tell them what went on and I'm not fighting the fee because of the reason I just said above and see what happens.

Any advice from anybody out there? Have any of you had a similar experience? I feel like I could have done all of this myself. If I had known that I could have gotten all of these forms off the internet I would have and saved all the stress, anxiety attacks, and aggravation, not to mention the money!! The Congressmans office has helped me more than my lawyer has, they just contacted Baltimore on my behalf to see if they can get my payment expedited. Something I'm sure my lawyer would not do.

Please leet me know what you all think. It's driving me nuts knowing that he sits in his big office with stacks of papers and has no clue as to what he is doing and who he is working for. It's like he forgets all about you once he gets you to sign on that dotted line. Maybe he has too many cases, or he is ready to retire, I don't know, but I do know that I don't feel like he earned 25% or $4000!

Thanks for listening.

Hugs

Peggy