Greenville, South Carolina
Greenville, South Carolina Social Security Disability Lawyers for SSDI and SSI Claims in the Upstate
A disability hearing request from Greenville, South Carolina is generally handled by the Greenville hearing office at 475 North Main Street in Mauldin, because the Greenville field office on Pelham Road and the Spartanburg, Anderson, Clinton and Greenwood offices are all on its list.
Downard & Associates represents adults in Greenville, Spartanburg, Anderson, Pickens, Oconee and Laurens counties with Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims, from the first application through reconsideration, a hearing before an administrative law judge and Appeals Council review. We are based in Lebanon, Tennessee, talk with Upstate clients by phone or video, and take no fee unless you win.
How we help
What Our Greenville Disability Attorneys Handle
Adults are judged by one disability definition in both programs, and you can apply for both at the same time.
SSDI rests on a Social Security earnings record, ordinarily your own, while SSI depends on limited income and countable resources and needs no work history. Adults are judged by one disability definition in both programs, and you can apply for both at the same time. A parent's record can sometimes support an adult whose disability started before 22, and the record of a spouse or former spouse who has died can sometimes support a disabled widow or widower, including a surviving divorced spouse, age 50 to 59; these depend on rules about the family relationship, the worker's record and when the disability began. Statewide rules are on our South Carolina disability lawyer page.
Downard has no office in Greenville. We meet with you by phone or video, and our attorney generally takes part in your hearing from Tennessee in the same way, even if you appear in person. Our clients are adults age 18 and older. We do not take VA claims or VA appeals, continuing disability reviews, cessation cases or cases about back pay alone, and we refer a case that needs federal court to affiliated counsel.
The local offices
Five Field Offices Serve Greenville and Nearby Counties
Social Security's office locator sends Greenville and most of Pickens County to one field office on Pelham Road, Oconee County and most of Anderson County to Anderson, Spartanburg County to Spartanburg, and most of Laurens County to Clinton, with Ware Shoals going to Greenwood. Each office below is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Greenville, 319 Pelham Road: Greenville ZIP codes such as 29601, 29605, 29607, 29609, 29611, 29615 and 29617, plus Mauldin, Simpsonville, Fountain Inn, Greer, Taylors, Travelers Rest, Piedmont, Marietta and Cleveland, and in Pickens County, Easley, Pickens, Liberty, Central, Six Mile, Norris and Sunset. Phone 1-877-274-5423.
Spartanburg, Suite 300, 145 North Church Street: Spartanburg and the rest of Spartanburg County, including Boiling Springs, Inman, Duncan, Lyman, Wellford, Woodruff, Landrum, Chesnee, Cowpens and Pacolet. Phone 1-866-701-6620.
Anderson, 4 Civic Center Boulevard Extension: Anderson, Belton, Honea Path, Iva, Pendleton, Williamston, Starr and Townville; Seneca, Walhalla, Westminster and the rest of Oconee County; Clemson (29631); and Pelzer (29669). Phone 1-877-505-4549.
Clinton, 292 Professional Park Road: Laurens County, including Laurens, Clinton, Gray Court, Joanna, Cross Hill, Mountville and Waterloo. Phone 1-866-526-9854.
Greenwood, Suite C, 115 Enterprise Court: Ware Shoals (29692). Phone 1-866-739-4803.
The field office takes applications and appeal requests and checks the non-medical requirements, but it does not decide whether you are disabled or hold hearings. In South Carolina, Disability Determination Services, part of the South Carolina Vocational Rehabilitation Department, generally makes that decision at the application and reconsideration stages; at a hearing, the judge decides. Search your own street address in the locator, because assignments can change and a ZIP code can cross office lines.
Hearing offices
The Greenville Hearing Office Sits in Mauldin
The data behind Social Security's hearing office locator gives the Greenville hearing office's address as 475 North Main Street, Mauldin, SC 29662, phone 1-866-827-6721, and lists Anderson, Clinton, Greenville, Greenwood and Spartanburg in South Carolina, plus Franklin and Hendersonville in western North Carolina. Appendix F of Social Security's privacy notice for hearing records gives the same address and the same seven field offices.
So the office is called Greenville but sits in Mauldin, a suburb southeast of downtown, and every Upstate field office named above feeds it. Your Notice of Hearing names the office handling your case and how you take part, and the hearing can be held by phone or video as well as in person.
Social Security's operations manual says hearing office jurisdiction is determined by the claimant's residence address, though you can ask, in a signed statement giving your reasons that the field office sends along with your hearing request, to have the case transferred, and Social Security decides whether to do it. Social Security's hearings manual also lets it reassign some cases to another hearing office to relieve a temporary workload imbalance or increase productivity, only when the other office can hear and decide them more quickly. Social Security does not reassign a case this way when you have properly objected to both a phone hearing and an agency video hearing, have not agreed to online video, and have not changed your residence. If you move while your hearing request is pending, the hearing-format rules in 20 CFR 404.936 and, for SSI, 20 CFR 416.1436 let Social Security decide again how you will appear, including by phone or agency video, despite the objection, and it considers the move only once you send evidence verifying your new residence. In a workload reassignment, its hearings manual says management will still honor the objection after a move when doing so causes no additional delay and nothing else calls for scheduling you another way. When Social Security moves a case to another hearing office for workload or productivity reasons, the office that receives it is responsible for notifying you and your representative of the reassignment as soon as possible. Our hearing office directory lists every office with its field offices, and our ZIP code lookup shows the field office Social Security's office locator assigns to a ZIP code and the hearing office Social Security links to that field office. Your Notice of Hearing gives the address of the hearing office handling your case and, for an in-person or agency video hearing, the place, so go by that notice for your own case.
South Carolina rules
SSI and South Carolina Medicaid
Social Security's operations manual, POMS SI 01715.010, names the states that have no 1634 agreement with it, and South Carolina is not one of them. In a 1634 state, Social Security makes the Medicaid eligibility decision for people who receive SSI and meet certain citizenship or immigration requirements. The state, not Social Security, decides that someone is ineligible for Medicaid; if SSI is denied, Social Security refers you to the state, which makes its own Medicaid decision.
SSDI follows a different path. It brings Medicare, which generally begins after 24 months of SSDI entitlement (people with ALS do not wait), and an SSDI award does not by itself make you eligible for Medicaid; South Carolina decides that separately. The Midlands, which go to the Columbia hearing office instead, are covered on our Columbia, South Carolina disability lawyer page.
Local treatment records
Records From Prisma Health, Spartanburg Regional and the VA
Prisma says copy service fees apply to MRO Express requests and printed copies.
With your permission, Social Security makes every reasonable effort to help you get records from your own medical sources, which 20 CFR 404.1512(b)(1) (416.912(b)(1) for SSI) defines as an initial request to each source and, if the records have not arrived, one follow-up request 10 to 20 calendar days later. Before finding that you are not disabled, it develops your complete medical history, generally at least the 12 months before the month you apply. You must still tell it about or submit all evidence you know of that relates to whether you are disabled, so a full list of providers, with your own copies where you have them, helps close gaps.
Prisma Health: its medical records page offers records through MyChart, or through MRO Express for patients without MyChart, and printed copies by phone or by an authorization form sent to the Release of Information department at 255 Enterprise Boulevard, Suite 220, Greenville, SC 29615, phone 864-454-4600, fax 864-454-4654, with a copy of a photo ID for requests by mail. Prisma says copy service fees apply to MRO Express requests and printed copies.
Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System: its medical records page points first to MyChart, then to the Medical Records office at 864-560-6273, or to an authorization form signed in pen and sent with a photocopy of a photo ID to Medical Record Services, 101 East Wood Street, Spartanburg, SC 29303, fax 864-560-6073.
VA care in the Upstate: the Lance Corporal Dana Cornell Darnell VA Clinic at 41 Park Creek Drive in Greenville, formerly the Greenville VA Clinic, is part of the Columbia VA Health Care System. That system's medical records office page offers records online, or by mail on VA Form 10-5345a to Release of Information, Building 100, Room 136D, 6439 Garners Ferry Road, Columbia, SC 29209; requests may take up to 20 business days. VA records can support an SSDI or SSI claim even though we do not handle VA claims themselves.
Hearings and deadlines
Hearing Format and Appeal Deadlines for a Greenville Disability Claim
To object in writing to a phone or agency video hearing, after you receive the Notice of Ways to Attend a Hearing
30days
20 CFR 404.936(d), 416.1436(d)
After a hearing request, Social Security sends a Notice of Ways to Attend a Hearing, and its ways to attend page lists four: in person or by agency video at one of its offices, and by phone, or by online video on your own device, either from a private location you choose. Under 20 CFR 404.936 and, for SSI, 20 CFR 416.1436, an objection to a phone hearing, an agency video hearing, or both must be made in writing within 30 days after you receive that notice. If you do not object, Social Security can schedule a phone or agency video hearing, though it can also schedule you in person or, if you agree, by online video; if you object to only one of those two formats, it can schedule you in person, by the other format, or by online video if you agree, and if you object to both, it generally schedules you in person or, if you agree, by online video. Online video is used only if you agree to it in writing, also within 30 days after you receive that notice, and a late objection or agreement needs good cause. If you move while the hearing request is pending, Social Security decides how you appear and can schedule a phone or agency video hearing despite an objection, though it considers the move only if you send evidence of your new residence; it can also use a phone hearing in a few other situations the rule lists. Our guide to hearing formats explains each choice and when Social Security moves a case to another office, and our disability hearings page describes the hearing itself.
A reconsideration request is due in writing within 60 days after you receive the initial denial, under 20 CFR 404.909 for SSDI and 20 CFR 416.1409 for SSI, and a hearing request after a reconsideration denial has its own 60 days under 20 CFR 404.933 and 20 CFR 416.1433. Social Security treats a notice as received 5 days after the date on the notice unless you show it came later, under 20 CFR 404.901 and 20 CFR 416.1401. A late request needs a written request for more time and good cause, so call us the week a denial arrives.
Common questions
Greenville Disability Claim Questions
Is a Greenville disability hearing held at 475 North Main Street in Mauldin?
Not always. The Greenville hearing office generally handles the case for an Upstate address, but Social Security can schedule a phone hearing, an agency video hearing at one of its offices, an in-person hearing, or an online video hearing if you agree. You can object in writing to a phone or agency video hearing within 30 days after you receive the Notice of Ways to Attend a Hearing, though in limited cases Social Security can still schedule a phone hearing, and if you move while your request is pending, Social Security decides again how you will appear, including by phone or agency video despite your objection. The Notice of Hearing says where and how you take part.
Which Social Security office serves Easley, Pickens and Clemson?
The locator assigns Easley, Pickens, Liberty and Central to the Greenville field office at 319 Pelham Road, but Clemson (29631) to the Anderson field office at 4 Civic Center Boulevard Extension. Both offices are on the Greenville hearing office's list.
Do Spartanburg and Anderson claims go to the same hearing office as Greenville?
Generally, yes. The Spartanburg and Anderson field offices are both on the Greenville hearing office's list in the locator data and in Appendix F, so a claimant whose address the locator assigns to either one is generally served by the hearing office in Mauldin. Search your own street address in the locator to see which field office serves it.
Why does a Ware Shoals address go to the Greenwood office?
Because the locator assigns Ware Shoals (29692) to the Greenwood field office at Suite C, 115 Enterprise Court, while the rest of Laurens County goes to Clinton. Greenwood and Clinton are both on the Greenville hearing office's list, so a claimant assigned to either generally ends up at the same hearing office.
Discuss your claim
Ask for a Free Review of Your Greenville Disability Claim
Call (615) 255-4307 or complete the free review form, and you will hear back within 3 business hours. Have your latest Social Security notice, the date it reached you and the names of the Upstate clinics and hospitals where you are treated.