Retroactive Disibility Payments.

What is the name of your state? Nevada.

My mother is in need of some advice. I am a law school graduate, not a lawyer yet. She has been through the Social Security Administrative process and has been denied initialy like most others. She sued and had representation. The US District Court for the Dist. of Nevada ruled in my mothers favor. Ruling that she was qrongfully denied disability and calling for payment of back payments retroactively. Several years of payments are due. The judge ruled this in December of 2002. It has been two years and no arrears have been paid whatsoever. I enquire here because she has reached a point of impasse. She has been unable to gain any information from her attorney or the S.S.Administration. Her attorney says he is unable to procure information from S.S.A. regarding her case. Although, he has been paid his share of the settlement, my mother has not. This in itself seems questionable. The attorney has been paid for a service for which he did not provide. (obtaining settlement) Now, the question is two fold. 1: Does the attorney owe a duty to his client to proceed on her behalf, until settlement? 2: What is taking so long there and what is the best way to determine when te settlement will come and what amount it will be. (the old standby of Senator contact has proven unfruitful)

JusticeSeeker:

Go to the following website:

http://www.ssas.com/direct.htm

Scroll down til you find PC7, which is in Baltimore. ALL Social Security Disability Claims are sent here for processing and payment. Not SSI, but Social Security Disability. SSI payments are sent to your local office for processing.

Now, you're going to have to go by your mother's SSN to find out which module should have her claim. Start with "Division I" and work your way down. Look for the module that has the first FIVE digits of your mother's SSN in it's range. For example:

If your mother's SSN starts with 555-55 then you'll look through until you find the module that has 555-55 in it's range. That would be Module 43, who's range is 553-33 through 560-18. 555-55 falls between those 2.

THAT is the module who should have handled your mother's claim (in my example). If it's not, however, they can tell you which module that it is.

SOMEONE in Baltimore has handled her claim, as the attorney has been paid. Attorney's are only paid out of Social Security retroactive benefits, not SSI retroactive. If the attorney is due any money from the SSI portion of a claimant's retroactive benefits, then it's up to the claimant to pay them from those benefits themselves. The SSA won't.

If, as you say, the attorney has been paid by the SSA, then it was indeed taken out of the Social Security retroactive benefits and that claim has been processed to some point. Baltimore is who has that information. Baltimore is who you can call as a starting place.

Hope this helps.

Oh, and just as an FYI...

The attorney is generally paid first. They get their money before the claimant gets theirs usually. Maybe not by much time (could be just a week or so), but that's pretty much par for the course.

Thank you so much for your reply. I thought it was a lost cause for a bit. I will research the Baltimore Modules you mention. Great insight there. As far as payment to the attorney. He was paid more than a year ago and thus far, no monies to my mother. I am begining to worry. Thanks for the info.

JJ