Social Security Disability Attorney in Columbia, SC
Our Social Security attorneys are often in the Columbia area for hearings. With our satellite office conveniently located in the Five Points area, our Social Security attorneys have successfully helped many clients in the Columbia region – and we look forward to partnering with you in your fight to obtain the benefits you deserve.
Obtaining disability benefits can be a difficult and confusing process, and unfortunately SSD judges are refusing disability claims at an increasing rate. You need a disability lawyer who will fight for you to persuade the judge to approve your case. McChesney & Ours will be your partner in this process by vigorously and professionally researching and developing your case or appeal. Our disability attorneys will look at your case thoroughly, gathering all medical evidence and hard objective data to help prove your disability in court.
We Help You Win Your Columbia Social Security Disability Case By:
- Conducting accurate, comprehensive research into your medical case
- Gathering medical records and objective tests such as MRIs, X-rays, and EMGs
- Obtaining opinions from doctors and statements from other sources
- Looking for legal errors that an administrative law judge (ALJ) may have made, if your case was denied at the hearing level
- Accurately completing the paperwork and making sure all deadlines are met
- Appealing your denied Social Security case to the Appeals Council level or Federal District Court level, if needed
- Filing an additional disability claim as needed
How We Successfully File Your Columbia SSD Claim
To successfully obtain your benefits, McChesney & Ours recommends talking to us before filing a disability claim. We know how to develop a case so that it is likely to be reversed on appeal, which increases your chance of winning. Judges know that if they deny your case, and we have well-documented proof, we are going to fight with you to appeal your case. This can’t help but influence their decisions.
We handle these appeals for our own clients and for the clients of more than 20 other lawyers with whom we join forces on denied claims. Other lawyers send us their cases because they know we are effective, trustworthy, and will go to bat for their clients.
Please call us to make an appointment. Appointments need to be made in advance, and we look forward to meeting with you and helping you with your disability case.
Although we believe your chances of success are greatly improved by having our lawyers work on your case, if you want to file a claim on your own the Columbia Social Security office is located at 1835 Assembly Street, Columbia, SC 29201 on the 11th floor of the Strom Thurmond Federal Building.
Who Will Fight for You?
Paul McChesney
Paul McChesney, our founder, grew up in Spartanburg, SC and lives here along with his wife Anne. His father, Paul S. McChesney Jr, was the first family court judge in Spartanburg County.
Mark Dunning
Mark received his legal training in England. He has represented claimants before the Social Security Administration since 1996. He has a Masters’ Degree in Modern History and co-authored a book about capital courts-martial in the British army during the First World War. Mark is a member of the New York bar and has been associated with McChesney & Ours since 2011.
Caroline M. Rollins
Caroline is a graduate of the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee (BA in History) and of Cumberland School of Law, Birmingham, Alabama where she served as Student Materials Editor of the American Journal of Trial Advocacy. She has been practicing law since 1988 and in the area of Social Security disability for over 30 years. She served as a Sr. Attorney for the Social Security Administration Office of Hearings and Appeals for 8 years. Since 2006, Caroline has been with McChesney & Ours where she speaks with clients, reviews files, and prepares Hearing Memos.
McChesney & Ours has been handling cases in the Columbia area for many years. We have worked together with other attorneys in Columbia on cases where the claimant was denied at the hearing level. We have appealed these cases to the Appeals Council level or Federal District Court level by looking for legal errors that an ALJ may have made in a case. We may also decide that the claimant should file an additional disability claim or not appeal depending on each separate situation. Where we decide not to take a case, we provide information on what a claimant should do going forward. In certain situations, that may involve using community resources such as free health clinics or trying to work on a part-time or full time basis. In every case that we take, our attorneys work together with our clients and our staff as a team to gather medical records, objective tests such as MRIs, X-rays and EMGs, opinions from doctors, and statements from other sources. Nationally, the approval rate for judges (ALJs) at the hearing level declined from 63% in 2008 and 2009 to 45% by 2014. Our firm works to gather all the medical evidence we can to convince ALJs to rule in favor of our clients.
We develop our cases vigorously. Though it varies a lot depending on the case, our typical case strategy is to develop a tentative theory, gather all medical evidence, adjust the theory, and try to gather the evidence to prove disability. For most impairments, we try to document your claim with hard objective data, to make sure you develop consistent treatment records, and to get a clear statement of disability from at least one doctor.
If a Social Security case is denied at the hearing level, the case can be appealed to the Appeals Council and from there to the District Courts. We handle these appeals for our own clients and for the clients of more than 20 other lawyers.
This means three things to you: lawyers are in a position to know what lawyers are good. First, other lawyers would not be sending us these cases unless they thought we were good. Second, we know how to develop a case so that it is likely to be reversed on appeal, which increases your chance of winning on appeal if that becomes necessary. Third, every judge knows that if he denies your case, and we have good proof, we are going to appeal it. That can’t help but influence his decision.
Disability in Columbia, South Carolina
In Charleston County, 7% of people 65 or over live with a disability. These disabilities vary from arthritis and back problems, heart issues, respiratory problems, diabetes, the effects of strokes, and mental health problems. Whatever the cause, disability often affects every aspect of people’s lives, including their relationships, finances, living situation, and mental well-being.
You are not alone in living with a disability and needing to file for benefits in and around Columbia. Nearly 9% of people in Richland County and nearby Lexington County live with a disability, according to the US Census. These disabilities can be stressful for both the person and their family, but obtaining disability benefits is a tremendous help to those with limited income and resources. Our goal is to help you get those needed benefits so you can live a better life with more peace of mind.