New orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans Disability Lawyers for SSDI and SSI
Downard & Associates represents adults in New Orleans, Louisiana, with Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) applications and appeals. We work with clients by phone and video, helping prepare applications, develop medical evidence, and prepare for administrative hearings. Start with the names of your treatment providers, the facilities where you received care, and the work your condition makes difficult.
How we help
Working With Downard on a New Orleans Disability Claim
For SSI, we help complete the application and its financial disclosures.
We serve New Orleans clients from Tennessee through phone and video communication. Our Louisiana disability representation page explains our statewide service.
Applications: We help file SSDI applications, gather medical evidence, and document work history. For SSI, we help complete the application and its financial disclosures.
Reconsideration: We review the reasons for a denial, address missing evidence, and respond to the medical or financial issue identified in the decision.
Administrative hearings: We prepare you to explain your symptoms and work limitations, develop the medical record, and present the legal argument to the administrative law judge.
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
SSDI and SSI Requirements for New Orleans Adults
Duration rule
12months
SSDI generally requires enough recent work covered by Social Security. The work-credit requirements depend on your age when disability began. Statutory blindness has a different insured-status rule: fully insured status is required, but the ordinary recent-work test does not apply. See the Social Security Administration (SSA) disability eligibility guidance.
SSI does not require SSDI work credits. It requires limited income and resources, eligibility based on disability, blindness, or age 65 or older, and other requirements such as qualifying citizenship or immigration status and residence. SSA explains the SSI eligibility requirements.
For SSDI claims not based on statutory blindness and adult SSI claims based on disability, SSA considers whether your medical condition prevents substantial gainful activity (SGA), meaning significant physical or mental work usually done for pay or profit. When the evaluation reaches those steps, SSA also considers whether you can do past work or adjust to other work. A claim can be decided before those later steps.
The condition and resulting inability to perform substantial gainful activity must have lasted or be expected to last at least 12 consecutive months, unless the condition is expected to result in death. You do not have to wait a year before applying. SSDI based on statutory blindness also has a duration requirement and separate work rules. SSI based on statutory blindness has no duration requirement, and SSA does not use SGA to determine initial SSI eligibility based on statutory blindness. SSI based on age 65 or older does not require disability.
Local medical records
Requesting Records From LSU Care at University Medical Center
A request to the doctor's network alone may leave that hospital treatment unaccounted for.
If an LSU Healthcare Network doctor treated you at University Medical Center New Orleans, record the hospital name as well as the doctor's name. LSU's medical-record request instructions direct patients who saw its providers at a separate facility to request those records from that facility. A request to the doctor's network alone may leave that hospital treatment unaccounted for.
University Medical Center New Orleans is among the facilities covered by LCMC Health's medical-record instructions. LCMC offers requests through MyChart, an online request without a portal account that requires photo ID, and signed authorizations with a copy of your photo ID sent by email, fax, or mail. Request letters and authorizations must name the correct hospital; incorrectly labeled requests may be returned.
Make separate entries for hospital care, clinic visits, and treatment outside those systems. Include the dates and location of tests. Before sending a request, compare the facility name on the form with the place where you received care. If the location is unclear, ask the records department which facility should be named.
Local claim process
Medical Review of a New Orleans Disability Application
SSA checks the nonmedical eligibility requirements. Louisiana Disability Determination Services (DDS) develops medical evidence and makes the initial determination of disability or blindness. SSA's disability determination explanation describes these separate roles.
DDS usually seeks evidence from your own medical sources first. If that evidence is unavailable or insufficient, it may arrange an examination to obtain more information. Keep copies of requests and follow the response instructions.
For SSA office details during a later appeal, see our hearing-office guide.
Get organized
Build a Treatment and Work Checklist for Your New Orleans Claim
For LSU care at a separate hospital, identify that hospital in the entry.
Use one working list to connect your treatment records with the information in your application. Add a new entry when you receive care or hear from SSA.
Treatment locations: List each hospital or clinic, the treating clinician, contact details, approximate dates, medications, and tests. For LSU care at a separate hospital, identify that hospital in the entry.
Record requests: Note the facility named, the dates of care requested, the date you submitted the request, and anything still missing. Keep any records already in your possession.
Work and daily activities: Write down job dates and actual duties. Describe difficulties with lifting, standing, concentration, attendance, or other tasks that apply to you. Use concrete examples rather than the condition's name alone.
SSI financial information: List income, accounts, other resources, and your living arrangement. Keep the supporting documents together for the financial disclosures.
Agency correspondence: Save decisions and requests, note when you received them, and record your response dates.
Do not delay applying just because some documents are missing. SSA's application instructions say it can help obtain missing documents.
After a denial
Responding to an SSDI or SSI Denial in New Orleans
Deadline
60days
After an initial SSDI or SSI denial, a written reconsideration request is generally due within 60 days after you receive the notice. After a reconsideration denial, a written administrative law judge hearing request generally has the same receipt-based period. SSA presumes receipt five days after the notice date unless you show that you did not receive it within that period.
If a reconsideration or hearing request is late, ask SSA for an extension in writing and explain why. SSA must find good cause; an extension is not automatic. Read the instructions in the decision promptly. The SSDI reconsideration rule, SSI reconsideration rule, SSDI hearing-request rule, and SSI hearing-request rule explain the request and extension requirements.
Common questions
Questions About New Orleans Disability Claims
Does an LSU doctor's name tell me where to request every record?
No. LSU Healthcare Network says records for care by its providers at separate facilities should be requested from those facilities. Identify where each visit or hospital stay occurred, then use the record-request instructions for that location.
What if my LCMC MyChart account does not show a record?
LCMC says records not found in MyChart can be requested through the portal. Use its medical-record request process and identify the facility and treatment dates. The records office can help with questions about the request.
Can I apply for SSI if I do not have enough work credits for SSDI?
Possibly. SSI does not require SSDI work credits. You must meet its income and resource limits, qualify based on disability, blindness, or age 65 or older, and meet its other requirements. A lack of SSDI credits does not by itself establish SSI eligibility.
Does Downard have a New Orleans office?
No. We are based in Tennessee and work with New Orleans clients by phone and video. We have no Louisiana office.
Discuss your claim
Discuss Your New Orleans Application or Appeal With Downard
Tell us whether you are starting an application, responding to a denial, or preparing for a hearing. Bring your treatment-location list and any decision letter so we can discuss your next step.