Los angeles, California
Los Angeles Disability Lawyers for SSDI and SSI
Downard & Associates represents adults in Los Angeles, California, with Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims. We help prepare applications, respond to denials, and represent clients at administrative hearings. We work with you by phone and video. Begin with the date your medical condition affected your work, your treatment sources, and any Social Security decision you have received. We can review that information and explain the next step.
How we help
Working With Downard on a Los Angeles Disability Claim
For SSI, we also help with the financial disclosures required by the application.
We serve Los Angeles adults from Tennessee and work with clients by phone and video. Our California disability representation page explains our service across the state.
Applications: We help complete and file the application, gather medical evidence, and document work history. For SSI, we also help with the financial disclosures required by the application.
Reconsideration: We review the reasons the Social Security Administration (SSA) gave for the denial and address missing or updated evidence. The response should deal with the medical or nonmedical issue identified in the decision.
Administrative hearings: We develop the medical record, prepare you to answer questions about your condition and work, and present the legal argument at the hearing. The goal of preparation is to explain your limitations accurately and connect them with the evidence.
We handle SSDI cases for people who currently receive benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), but we do not handle VA claims or appeals. We do not take disability cessation or continuing disability review cases, or new cases involving back-pay issues alone. We refer federal court appeals to a trusted affiliate rather than handling them in-house.
Benefit eligibility
What Los Angeles Applicants Need to Qualify for SSDI or SSI
Duration rule
12months
SSDI generally requires enough work covered by Social Security, including sufficiently recent work. The number of work credits required depends on your age when your disability began. For SSDI based on statutory blindness, fully insured status is required, but the usual recent-work test does not apply. SSI does not require an insured work record. It has separate income, resource, and other eligibility rules and may be available based on age 65 or older, statutory blindness, or a qualifying disability. Read SSA’s SSDI eligibility explanation and SSI eligibility requirements.
For adult SSDI and SSI claims based on disability, SSA generally evaluates whether a medically determinable physical or mental condition prevents substantial gainful activity, meaning significant physical or mental work usually done for pay or profit. The condition and resulting inability to perform that work must have lasted or be expected to last at least 12 consecutive months, unless the condition is expected to result in death. SSA considers past work and adjustment to other work when the evaluation reaches those steps; it can decide a claim at an earlier step. You do not have to wait 12 months to apply when the expected duration meets the rule.
SSI statutory blindness has different rules: SSA does not use substantial gainful activity to determine initial SSI eligibility based on statutory blindness, and there is no duration requirement for SSI statutory blindness. SSI’s financial and other eligibility rules still apply.
Local claim process
Medical Review and Hearing Arrangements in Los Angeles
Use your case correspondence to identify the office handling your appeal.
A Social Security field office checks nonmedical eligibility. California’s Disability Determination Service Division (DDSD) develops medical evidence and makes the initial disability or blindness determination. A later hearing is handled through SSA’s Office of Hearings Operations. The medical-review office and the hearing office perform different jobs.
Keep the full office name when organizing your letters. Use your case correspondence to identify the office handling your appeal. Our hearing-office guide provides office details without requiring you to guess from the closest building.
A directory entry does not establish your scheduled hearing site. An in-person hearing may be held at a hearing office or permanent remote site. Follow the scheduling notice for your case’s location and attendance instructions.
SSA describes four ways to attend a hearing: in person, by audio using a telephone, by agency video using SSA equipment, or by online video using your own device. Online video requires your agreement. The Notice of Ways to Attend a Hearing explains how to agree or object; objections to audio or agency video are subject to SSA’s rules and exceptions. Respond within the time limits in that notice. Phone or video meetings with our team are separate from your SSA hearing arrangement.
Get organized
Build a Clear Record for Your Los Angeles Application or Appeal
Organize these items before discussing your claim. Record what you know, identify gaps, and keep copies of information you submit.
Letters and deadlines: Keep each SSA and DDSD letter with its envelope. Record the full office name, the date on the letter, when you received it, the requested action, and the response instructions. Do not file a medical-information request and a denial notice as though they were the same document.
Treatment sources: List relevant doctors, clinics, hospitals, and therapists with contact details and treatment dates. Add medications, prescribers, tests, and records already in your possession. Include care received outside Los Angeles.
Actual job duties: Begin with jobs held during the five years before you became unable to work because of your medical conditions. Follow the SSA Work History Report’s instructions about which jobs to include. Record dates, hours, tasks, lifting, standing, tools, and supervision.
Daily limitations: Write specific examples of how symptoms affect sitting, walking, concentrating, using your hands, or finishing a task. Describe what happens and how often, without exaggerating or minimizing it.
SSI information: Organize income, resources, and living-arrangement information if you are seeking SSI. Financial eligibility is separate from the medical determination.
SSA’s application guidance says not to delay applying because documents are missing. Provide what you have and respond to later requests for additional information.
After a denial
Responding to a Los Angeles SSDI or SSI Denial
Deadline
60days
After an initial SSDI or SSI denial, reconsideration is generally the next review step. After an unfavorable reconsideration determination, you may request a hearing before an administrative law judge. Both requests must be made in writing and generally must be filed within 60 days after you receive the relevant notice. SSA’s rules for SSDI reconsideration, SSI reconsideration, SSDI hearing requests, and SSI hearing requests explain these requirements.
SSA generally presumes receipt five days after the date on the notice unless you show that you did not receive it within that period. Keep evidence of delayed delivery. This is not an unconditional 65-day deadline measured from the letter date.
If a reconsideration or hearing request is late, request an extension in writing and explain why you missed the deadline. SSA must find good cause; an extension is not automatic. Have the decision reviewed promptly so the appeal step and the reasons for denial can be considered together.
Common questions
Questions About Disability Claims From Los Angeles
Does a Los Angeles hearing-office listing tell me where to attend?
No. A hearing-office listing does not establish your scheduled hearing site or attendance method. Use the scheduling notice for your case. An in-person hearing may take place at a hearing office or permanent remote site.
Why is California DDSD requesting information after I applied to Social Security?
DDSD develops medical evidence and makes the initial disability or blindness determination for Social Security claims in California. That role is separate from the field office’s nonmedical eligibility review and a later administrative hearing. Read the request and respond using its instructions.
How should I describe work when my job title stayed the same but my duties changed?
Describe the tasks you actually performed, including changes in hours, lifting, standing, equipment, or responsibilities. SSA’s Work History Report asks about job duties and demands, so a title alone does not supply all of that information. Follow the form’s instructions for the period and jobs to report.
Can I work with Downard without visiting a California office?
Yes. We represent adults in Los Angeles with SSDI and SSI matters and work with clients by phone and video. We do not have a California office. Meetings with our team do not determine the attendance method SSA schedules for a hearing.
Discuss your claim
Discuss Your Los Angeles Disability Claim With Downard
Tell us how your condition has affected your work and whether you have applied or received a denial. We can review your situation and explain the next steps.