“I'd been told no twice and stopped opening the mail. Noreen asked for every envelope, laid them out by date and told me what each one meant. I understood my own case for the first time.”
Marlys T.Disability claim
Social Security and VA disability claims
Take your time telling me what happened
I'm Noreen Overcash. I work with people in and around Fayetteville whose illness or injury has made working hard, and with veterans whose service left a mark the VA hasn't rated fairly. Tell me where your claim stands and we'll start there.
Noreen Overcash
Attorney for disability and veterans claims
I read the whole file before I tell you what I think.
I grew up in Cumberland County, where it seemed like every other neighbor was in uniform or just out of it. I heard a lot about benefits claims at kitchen tables long before I understood them, and about how a good person with a real injury could be turned away because one form was filled in wrong.
After law school I clerked for a lawyer who took only disability cases. I watched her read a file the way a doctor reads a chart: every page, in order, with a pencil. When I opened this office I decided to do the same, and to take nothing else.
It's a one-lawyer office. You reach me, and the person who reads your records is the person who sits beside you at the hearing. I'll tell you honestly what I see, including when the file is thin, and then we'll decide together what to do about it.
What I take
- Social Security disability (SSDI)
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
- VA disability compensation
- Appeals and hearings
How we would work
A letter, then a long read, then a call
Most people call me after a letter. Sometimes it's the first denial, sometimes the third. I ask for the letter, the dates on it and the names of the doctors who know you best. Then I read, and I call you back.
The fee, worked through
Say a Social Security disability claim is approved, and the back pay comes to $14,760: nine months of benefits at $1,640 a month, after the five-month wait. Social Security pays my fee straight out of that back pay, 25 percent of it at most, and never more than the cap the agency sets. The rest is yours, and every monthly check after that is yours alone.
If the claim isn't approved, you owe no fee. Costs, like fees for medical records, are separate, and I explain them before anything is ordered. They may be owed whether or not the claim is approved.
The numbers above are made up to show the arithmetic. They aren't a client's result, and your own claim will turn on its own dates, records and benefit rate.
Three claims
Three claims, worked through
Invented examples, here to show how the rules apply. Yours will have its own dates and its own records.
A back that won't lift anymore
A warehouse worker, 53, can no longer lift or stand through a shift. Social Security looks at his age, his work history and what the records say he can still do, not only the diagnosis.
Social Security claimsBenefits can begin only after a five-month wait
His doctor's notes on lifting, standing and sitting carry the claim
The first answer is often a denial, and there is a way to appeal it
A knee and a ringing in the ears
A veteran has a 50 percent rating for one condition and 30 percent for another. VA doesn't add them. It combines them on a table, and 50 and 30 come to 70, not 80.
VA disability ratingsRatings combine; they don't add
A new or worse condition can be claimed on its own
A rating can be raised when a condition gets worse
A denial letter and a deadline
A letter arrives saying no. The date on it starts a clock: Social Security gives 60 days to appeal, and VA gives a year to keep your original start date.
When the answer was noRead the date on the letter first
Reconsideration, a hearing and a VA review are different steps
Calling soon matters more than a perfect file
In their words
What clients have said
“She never talked down to me about the VA's rating table. She drew it on a legal pad, and after that my rating made sense.”
Quentin B.Veteran
“The hearing was less frightening because she had walked me through every question first. She was there the whole time.”
Dalila R.Hearing client
Each client's case is different. What one person experienced doesn't predict the result of another's claim. Names are shortened with permission.
A first call
Tell me which letter you are holding
Call, or send a few lines about where your claim stands. I'll read what you send and call you back.
Fees in Social Security cases are set by law and paid out of back pay, and nothing is due up front. Costs, like fees for medical records, are separate and may be owed even if a claim isn't approved.