In 2017, information is at our fingertips. A potential client can google divorce forms and pull-up a phonebook of forms to attempt to draft and file divorce pleadings on their own. The question comes up often in divorce cases where the parties have limited financial means or where they agree on what to do with respect to their children –…
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Do I need a Social Security Disability Attorney?
Potential clients, even friends and family often ask – do I need an attorney to obtain disability benefits? To answer this question I like to make the analogy of a dentist and having a tooth pulled. You don’t need a dentist to remove a tooth but the process probably goes a lot smoother with a professional rather than using a…
Top Ten Things No To Do In A Divorce
Do not believe everything you read on the internet. Believe that your divorce is “just like your friend’s divorce.” Just like marriage and children –no two are alike. Belittle your spouse to your children. No judge wants to hear that little Suzy or Sally knows Dad was sleeping with the secretary and that is why Mommy and Daddy don’t live…
Top Ten Things To Do In A Divorce
Keep a list of questions you have for your attorney and communicate them succinctly and at One (1) time; Provide your most recent paystub, most recent income tax filing, and a copy of your monthly income and expenses to your attorney within Thirty (30) days of hiring counsel; List all of your assets and debts. Give the list to your…
Miserable Company
Being a self-employed attorney sucks most days. You have more to do than you can say grace over and no matter how hard you work you are never, repeat never caught up much less ahead. What that means is on Sunday night when you are at dinner with your family you aren’t really there. Sure you are physically stuffing down…
Practice Tip: What does the Judge see?
Something interesting happened to me in one of my Social Security hearings this morning. First, a little background in Social Security hearing procedures for those who are unfamiliar with how the Social Security Administration prepares a file for a disability hearing. The Social Security hearing office will gather medical records and scan these records into a computer file and the…
The Importance of Identifying past Relevant Work
Our firm recently was successful in U.S. District Court on a Social Security case where the Social Security judge misidentified the claimant’s past relevant work. In Social Security disability cases the burden is on the disabled person to prove that they can no longer perform their past relevant work. Once it is proven that a claimant can perform the past…
The Effect Of Previous Social Security Denials
There was an interesting case out of Michigan last week that could potentially affect Social Security disability applicants in Tennessee. The case is Blankenship vs. Commissioner of Social Security. Blankenship applied for disability in 2002 claiming she was unable to work due to impairments with her feet. She appeared before a Social Security Judge in 2004 who denied her claim…
Thoughtful Clients
Dear Family Law Client, I know that your world is upside down and that the divorce/child custody process does not exactly leave a client feeling empowered or in control. The reality is that you are not going to get One Hundred Percent (100%) say-so in the outcome of your case and in a child custody case you are going to…
Friendly Foes
Just because we do not throw knives at the opposing counsel before, during and after Court does not mean we litigate your case any differently whether the opposing counsel is someone we have gone to church with for Ten (10) years versus the coach of the arch rival of our son’s soccer team. I had a comment one time several…