SSA does not require a person to hire a lawyer to apply for disability benefits, and generally provides a lot of assistance for those those filing claims.   Approximately one-third of those people who apply for benefits without a lawyer’s help will be found disabled on their initial application.  Another 15% of those who represent themselves are successful after the first appeal (known as “reconsideration”). 

Many claimants who represent themselves choose to do so in order to avoid having to pay an attorney’s fee. When making this decision, it is important to consider whether your current physical, emotional, or financial circumstances would make it hard for you to keep up with the deadline for filing an appeal.  If your claim is denied and you miss the reconsideration deadline, you may lose several months of back benefits if you start over with a new claim (or, in some cases, permanently foreclose your ability to win benefits).

If you do represent yourself at the initial and reconsideration stages and your claim is denied, you should strongly consider obtaining representation for the next stage in the process – the hearing in front of an administrative law judge.  Success rates at this level vary significantly depending on whether or not the claimant is represented.  Statistics show that about 60% of those represented by an attorney or claimant’s representative prevailed at the hearing stage, compared with 40% of those who represented themselves.