Buffalo, New York
Buffalo Disability Lawyers Working by Phone and Video Across Western New York
Buffalo's Social Security hearing office, on the 2nd Floor of 130 Delaware Avenue, holds disability hearings for claimants who live in the areas served by seven field offices, from Niagara Falls south to Jamestown and Olean. Downard & Associates represents Buffalo-area claimants in Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims, from the application through reconsideration and a hearing before an administrative law judge. We work by phone or video from our office in Lebanon, Tennessee, and there is no fee unless you win.
How we help
What We Handle for Buffalo and Niagara Frontier Claimants
Which credits count and where each record sits both shape the claim.
A Buffalo claim can reach across a border or a health system. A claimant may have years of work in Canada as well as in New York, or treatment records at more than one of Kaleida Health, Erie County Medical Center, Catholic Health and the Buffalo VA. Which credits count and where each record sits both shape the claim.
We handle applications, reconsideration, hearings and Appeals Council review, and our disability appeals page walks through each step after a denial. Our New York disability lawyer page covers statewide topics, including the state's SSI supplement.
We have no Buffalo office. Consultations happen by phone or video, and our attorneys handle hearings from Tennessee by phone or video. We represent adults age 18 and older. We handle SSDI cases for people who receive VA benefits, but we do not handle VA claims or appeals. We do not take disability cessation or continuing disability review cases, or cases about back pay alone, and we refer federal court appeals to affiliated counsel.
Hearing office
The Buffalo Hearing Office and the Field Offices It Serves
Social Security's hearing office locator lists the Buffalo hearing office at 2nd Floor, 130 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14202, with the telephone number (866) 348-5819 and office hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It serves the Batavia, Buffalo, Dunkirk, Jamestown, Niagara Falls, Olean and Ridge Road field offices.
Your home address, not the office nearest to you, sets the hearing office: Social Security's operations manual says hearing office jurisdiction is determined by the claimant's residence address. You can still object in writing to the place of a scheduled hearing, as the next section explains. The locator assigns the Batavia field office to Buffalo and the Greece field office to the Rochester hearing office. Olean and Jamestown are assigned to Buffalo, while Corning and Elmira go to Syracuse. Our hearing office directory lists every office and its field offices. For an in-person or agency video hearing, the Notice of Hearing names the place, so go by that notice.
Hearing formats
Phone, Video or In Person on Delaware Avenue
To object to a phone or agency video hearing
30days
20 CFR 404.936(d), 416.1436(d)
Social Security offers hearings by phone, online video, agency video or in person. Its ways to attend page explains that after you request a hearing it sends a Notice of Ways to Attend a Hearing, and that online video runs on your own smartphone, tablet or computer from a private location you choose.
Under 20 CFR 404.936 and, for SSI, 20 CFR 416.1436, you have 30 days after you receive that notice to object in writing to a phone hearing, an agency video hearing or both. Objecting to only one of those formats leaves Social Security free to schedule the other one, an in-person hearing or, if you agree, online video; objecting to both gets you an in-person hearing or, if you agree, online video. Online video is used only if you agree to it in writing, also within 30 days, and you can withdraw that agreement any time before the hearing starts. A late objection or agreement is accepted only for good cause. A timely objection does not decide every case: if you move while the hearing request is pending, or in the other limited cases the rule lists, Social Security decides how you appear. A claimant in Jamestown or Olean who agrees to online video, and whose hearing is scheduled that way, can attend from home instead of driving to Delaware Avenue.
Once a hearing is scheduled, an objection to its time or place must be made in writing at the earliest opportunity, and no later than 5 days before the hearing or 30 days after you receive the notice of hearing, whichever comes first. The objection states your reasons and the time or place you want, and the administrative law judge decides whether there is good cause to change it.
Local treatment records
Medical Records From ECMC, Kaleida, Catholic Health and the Buffalo VA
Each Buffalo health system takes records requests its own way. Ask for records by facility and date range, and keep a copy of every request you send.
Erie County Medical Center: its health records page links an online records request and a printable Authorization for Release of Information Form, which is mailed to Health Information Management & Medical Correspondence, 462 Grider Street, Buffalo, NY 14215. The page lists (716) 898-3257 for medical requests and asks attorneys and law firms to use New York's OCA Form 960 instead.
Kaleida Health: its patient authorization form, linked from Kaleida's Privacy and HIPAA page, asks you to check the facility, such as Buffalo General Medical Center and Gates Vascular Institute, John R. Oishei Children's Hospital or Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, and to mail the form to that facility's medical records address. For Buffalo General the form gives 100 High Street, Buffalo, NY 14203, (716) 859-2759. The form also has separate lines you initial to include alcohol or drug treatment information, mental health information and HIV-related information. If those records matter to your claim, initial each line that applies.
Catholic Health: its records page posts a separate authorization form for each hospital, including Mercy Hospital of Buffalo, Sisters of Charity Hospital and Kenmore Mercy Hospital. Patients of a Catholic Health primary care center choose the hospital affiliated with the office they visited. The page says a fee may apply when records are requested from a Catholic Health facility, and that a request sent directly to your medical provider should carry no charge. New York's Public Health Law section 18(2)(e) bars a provider from charging when a patient asks for records to support an application, claim or appeal for a government benefit or program. If you request records yourself, say on the request that they are for a Social Security disability claim.
Buffalo VA Medical Center: the medical records office at 3495 Bailey Avenue, Building 1, room E136, is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. By mail it takes VA Form 10-5345a; in person it asks for a signed written request and your Veteran Health Identification Card. The page says requests can take up to 20 business days. Our veterans page explains how a VA rating and an SSDI claim relate.
Canadian work
Work in Canada Can Count Toward SSDI
If you already qualify on U.S. credits alone, Social Security cannot count your Canadian credits.
The United States and Canada have a Social Security agreement whose provisions apply to U.S. disability benefits and let people qualify on combined U.S. and Canadian coverage credits. Social Security's page on the agreement says a worker without enough U.S. credits may qualify for a partial U.S. benefit based on both countries' credits, if the worker has at least six U.S. credits. If you already qualify on U.S. credits alone, Social Security cannot count your Canadian credits. The agreement covers Social Security retirement, disability and survivors benefits, and Social Security's operations manual confirms that SSI is not part of it.
A separate operations manual section credits four U.S. quarters of coverage for each calendar year of Canada Pension Plan or Quebec Pension Plan coverage, never more than four in a year and never for a quarter already credited in the United States. Our guide to how work credits are earned covers the U.S. side.
Each country processes its own claim under its own laws, so a Canada Pension Plan disability decision does not decide the Social Security claim. If you live in the United States, you can apply for Canadian benefits at any U.S. Social Security office, using Form CDN-USA 1 for the Canada Pension Plan or Form QUE/USA-1 for the Quebec Pension Plan. A person living in Canada can apply for U.S. benefits at a U.S. Social Security office along the border. Residents of provinces other than Quebec can also apply in person at Service Canada, and Quebec residents at a Quebec Pension Plan office. Tell us the years you worked in Canada and whether you have applied there.
After a denial
Buffalo Appeal Deadlines Count From When a Notice Is Treated as Received
To request reconsideration
60days
20 CFR 404.909, 416.1409
A written request for reconsideration is due within 60 days after you receive the denial, under 20 CFR 404.909 for SSDI and 20 CFR 416.1409 for SSI. After a reconsideration denial, a hearing request has its own 60 days from receipt under 20 CFR 404.933 and 20 CFR 416.1433.
Social Security presumes you received a notice 5 days after the date printed on it unless you show it arrived later, under 20 CFR 404.901 and 20 CFR 416.1401. A request filed after the deadline needs a written request for more time and a showing of good cause, so send us a denial the week it comes.
Common questions
Buffalo Disability Claim Questions
Is a Batavia or Niagara Falls claim heard in Buffalo or Rochester?
Social Security's hearing office locator assigns both the Batavia and Niagara Falls field offices to the Buffalo hearing office at 130 Delaware Avenue. Rochester's hearing office serves the Geneva, Greece and Rochester field offices. Your Notice of Hearing names the place for your own case.
Can years I worked in Canada help me qualify for SSDI?
They may. If your U.S. credits alone fall short and you have at least six U.S. credits, the U.S.-Canada agreement lets Social Security count Canada Pension Plan or Quebec Pension Plan coverage toward a partial U.S. benefit. Social Security still decides the claim under U.S. law, and the agreement does not apply to SSI.
Can I apply for Canada Pension Plan disability at a Buffalo Social Security office?
Yes, if you live in the United States. Social Security's agreement page says Canadian benefits can be applied for at any U.S. Social Security office, using Form CDN-USA 1 for the Canada Pension Plan. Canada then decides that claim under its own law.
Does a Kaleida records request include mental health records?
Mark it on the form. Kaleida's authorization form has separate lines you initial to include alcohol or drug treatment, mental health and HIV-related information, apart from the boxes for the dates of the medical records you want.
Can Catholic Health or ECMC charge for records used in a disability claim?
Catholic Health's records page says a fee may apply when records are requested from a Catholic Health facility, and ECMC's page does not list a fee. New York's Public Health Law section 18(2)(e) bars a provider from charging when a patient asks for records to support a government benefit claim or appeal. State that purpose on any request you make to either system.
Discuss your claim
Talk Through Your Buffalo Claim With Us
Have your latest Social Security notice, the field office on your letters and any years you worked in Canada in front of you. We will go over where the claim stands and the next deadline by phone or video.