For one, disability lawyers and non-attorney representatives prepare SSD and SSI cases for the purpose of winning their client's cases. And since representatives are paid a percentage of a claimant's backpay as their fee, they have every motivation to win and every incentive to properly prepare prior to a hearing.

What does this preparation include? Often, it includes obtaining a copy of an SSD or SSI claimant's social security file (these are sometimes three inches thick). It also generally involves getting updated medical records from a client's doctors, clinics, and hospitals, as well as supportive statements from a claimant's treating physician or therapist.

Be aware, however, that medical records are not always made freely available to patients. For this reason alone, a claimant may find it difficult to obtain records, copy them (never send the originals), and forward them to the appropriate office (either the social security office, the DDS office, or the hearing office, depending on which stage a claimant's case is currently in).

Having someone on your team who can properly steer you through the legal maze is your best bet to a winning outcome in your SSD or SSI case. Let them handle the tricky stuff, while you focus on the most important things in your life.

And, of course, there are other complexities involved in the case preparation process that generally lead to one conclusion: that it is better to be represented, particularly at the disability hearing stage.

Regarding the question, "how many disability cases without lawyers or representatives win or lose", perhaps the best way to answer this query is simply to illustrate what happens to many disability claimants who show up at hearings unrepresented.

Typically, an unrepresented claimant will arrive at a hearing location, be given the opportunity to review their file, and will have scant understanding of what they are reading as they thumb through a 1-3 inch thick file.

Of course, this is understandable since most individuals are not trained to read medical records. On the contrary, however, disability lawyers and non attorney representatives spend a substantial portion of their day doing just this.

Additionally, not only will a good disability rep have the ability to evaluate a claimant's records, that same advocate will be able to argue in a focused manner (to an administrative law judge) exactly why it is that a claimant's particular condition should qualify them for benefits, based on the eligibility criteria used by SSA.

In other words, though it is impossible to predict what an unrepresented claimant's chances will be at a hearing, it can safely be that for most claimants the chances of winning will be less.
  
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