What is the most disability lawyers near me can charge?

Sometimes you get hurt so badly that you even get disabled in some kind. Like one or both your legs may not move, your arms, or whatever. But having a permanent or long-term disability is really stressful and depressing for someone who never even imagined this. That’s why you might want to sue the person who got you into this condition. But money gets everything done, so here the question lies; what is the most disability lawyers near me can charge? The best way to answer this question is to read this article thoroughly so you understand every concept of hiring a lawyer.

How much do disability lawyers charge?

Sometimes people file a case as soon as possible but sometimes they have to recover from their damage first. It can be trauma, depression, financial problems coming their way, or anything that’s stopping them. So, once they’ve got through all that stuff, now they finally decide to file a case and here they get stuck because they don’t know how much a disability lawyer charges. 

Disability lawyers don’t charge upfront

Disability lawyers or premise liability lawyers, all work on a contingency basis most of the time. So, you won’t need to pay them anything upfront before the case takes the right turn. When they make you win your case and the Social Security Administration (SSA) approves your claim to be true.

But once you’ve decided to hire a lawyer, don’t fall for any red flags because all you have to do is just search online and ask everyone in your circle. But usually, disability lawyers charge around 20% to 25% of your claimed money. That’s your payment to them only at the surety of your claim to be rewarded. And if you don’t get anything from your case, you do not need to pay them at all because they’ve already lost your case.

But if you are claiming a large amount then the law dictates for the lawyers to charge only up to $7200. They cannot take any more than that from your claim. 

What they actually receive

So what a lawyer actually receives depends on the first back pay of your claim. Your first back pay is the amount that the SSA approves for your claim and the lawyer gets 25% of that. But it still cannot go higher than $7200. So find a disability attorney or search for Disability Lawyers Near Me and file your application.

The concept of “back pay” is that what you claim money from the government. The government delays your payment, and the more time it takes to clear your dues, the more they owe you. That is the concept of back pay here but we’ll dive into that later. 

The exception

There is an exception to the fee charged by the lawyer. If your case goes beyond the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), then your lawyer’s fees would still be 25% of your claim. But in this matter like a federal appeal, the fee of 25% should be paid with no cap. No Cap here means that the lawyer will charge 25% of your claim but there is no maximum limit to the amount. In the ALJ courts, the lawyers have a limit of $7200 but in federal appeals, this law doesn’t apply. So if you get let’s say $40,000 then your disability lawyer gets $10,000.

This law also dictates that your lawyer will only get their fees from the first back paycheck of your claim. And they won’t charge you for any of your future checks that you may get for your claim.

What is back pay?

A back pay is a concept of more like morality but it is the law in America now. Once you file your claim the back pay also accumulates from the same date. So the total time it took for the Social Security Administration (SSA) to approve your claim; is also payable by the government. Hence once your claim is approved, you get the compensation for all that time it took for your claim to get approved. Now you get more than what you initially claimed because of the delay by government authorities.

But back pay doesn’t work if your claim doesn’t get approved; so you get nothing. For that, you need to claim for only the amount that is due like your monthly benefit amount which is assessed by the Social Security Administration (SSA).

SSI and SSDI

The back pay amount is determined on the basis of dates. The Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), both determine how much you get for your claim.

• SSI is the date at which you became disabled or you filed your claim. And please mind that it only dates back to the later date out of these.
• SSDI is a bit more complicated than that. It dates back to the day you became disabled or the date you filed your application (plus 5 months). Also, the SSDI rule says that you can get a claim amount if you filed your case after you became disabled. Then it is determined from the date you filed your case to the date you became disabled. So the time between these two dates also accumulates in the back pay but with a cap of a maximum of one year.

Why does back pay start five months after your application date?

The back pay starts accumulating after 5 months of your claim application. That’s because the SSA considers five months a reasonable time duration for a Social Security disability claim to process. So, once you apply for your claim, you don’t get anything for the next five months of your application date. If it takes even longer than that, then it starts to accumulate in the total. But still not those five months but the remaining months if it takes 7 months, then you’ll only receive the claim for those 2 months that passed after the 5 months duration. 

For example, you filed for a Social Security disability claim and the SSA determines that you get $500 a month for your Social Security disability insurance. Your claim gets paid as your first back paycheck of $3500. So now you don’t get a claim for all 12 months which would have become $6000. It’s because the first five months are not counted in that claim. So only the last months like in this case, 7 months worth of SSDI is what you get. So, $500 X 7 = $3500.

Now let’s calculate your lawyer’s fee which is 25% of the first back paycheck on a contingency basis. The 25% of $3500 is $875 so you only get $2625. This amount is the rest of 75% of your total first back paycheck.

Wrap Up

Finding out what the most a disability lawyer near me can charge is very important. But it is lawfully declared by the government that it cannot be more than a fixed amount of $7200. This should be within the bracket of 25% which can be less than the fixed amount but not more than that in the ALJ. If the case goes beyond ALJ, like a federal appeal, only then your lawyer’s fee will be 25% with no cap.

FAQs – Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most a disability lawyer can charge?

In the ALJ, the most that a lawyer can charge in a fixed amount is $7200 or less on a 25% contingency basis.

How much does the most expensive lawyer charge?

One of the top disability lawyers near me charged $2426 per hour on a contingency basis from Neal Katyal. 

What’s the highest disability payment?

The supplemental Security Income (SSI) for one person is up to $943 and for a couple, it becomes up to $1415.