Orlando, Florida
Orlando Disability Lawyers for SSDI and SSI
Downard & Associates represents adults in Orlando, Florida, with Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims. We help with applications, reconsideration appeals, and administrative hearings, with client meetings by phone or video. If a medical condition has changed your ability to work, begin with your treatment sources and the duties you can no longer manage. We can help prepare the application or appeal for the stage your case has reached.
How we help
Working With Downard From Orlando
At an administrative law judge hearing, we prepare you for testimony, develop the medical record, and represent you at the hearing.
For an SSDI application, we help prepare the application, gather medical evidence, and document your work history. For SSI, we also help complete the financial disclosures. That gives the Social Security Administration (SSA) information about both the medical and nonmedical requirements involved.
At reconsideration, we address the reasons for denial and obtain updated medical evidence. At an administrative law judge hearing, we prepare you for testimony, develop the medical record, and represent you at the hearing. The preparation helps you explain what your condition allows you to do and where you need help.
We represent adults age 18 and older and work with Orlando clients by phone or video. Our firm is based in Tennessee and has no Florida office. Our Florida disability representation page explains the statewide service.
We handle SSDI cases for people who currently receive VA benefits, 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 Eligibility for Orlando Adults
Duration rule
12months
SSDI generally requires enough recent work covered by Social Security. The work-credit requirements depend on your age when the disability began. Read SSA's disability eligibility guidance for the insured-work rules.
SSI does not require an insured work record. Adults may qualify based on disability, statutory blindness, or age 65 or older, subject to income, resource, and other eligibility requirements. Age-based SSI does not require a disability finding.
For SSDI and adult SSI claims based on disability, SSA considers whether a medically determinable condition prevents substantial gainful activity (SGA). This means work involving significant physical or mental activities that is done, or usually done, for pay or profit. When the evaluation reaches those steps, SSA also considers past work and your ability to adjust to other work. The condition and the resulting inability to perform SGA must generally 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.
Initial SSI eligibility based on statutory blindness does not use SGA, and SSI statutory blindness has no duration requirement. Financial and other SSI requirements still apply. SSA's SSI eligibility explanation describes these separate categories.
Local treatment records
Orlando Health and AdventHealth Records for Your Claim
The patient request directory has separate entries for AdventHealth Orlando, AdventHealth East Orlando, and AdventHealth Medical Group Orlando.
If you received care through Orlando Health, its medical-records instructions give existing MyChart users a records-request path: Menu, then My Record, then Request Records. Orlando Health also offers a secure online request tool for patients without a MyChart account and a paper release form. Follow the instructions for the method you use.
AdventHealth cautions that some records and historical information may be missing from your online account. Its medical-records page explains how to download available visit records and request hospital records missing from MyChart. The patient request directory has separate entries for AdventHealth Orlando, AdventHealth East Orlando, and AdventHealth Medical Group Orlando. Choose the entry for the facility or practice that treated you.
If your treatment involved a hospital stay followed by specialist visits or therapy, list each treatment source separately. Compare that list with the records available to identify missing dates or providers. For AdventHealth records, distinguish the hospital from the medical-group entry before requesting copies. Patient requests and requests made by a law firm have separate instructions on the providers' pages.
Get organized
Make a Records and Work Checklist for Your Orlando Claim
Use this checklist before discussing your application or appeal. A simple list is enough; mark any detail you still need to confirm.
Treatment source: For each hospital, practice, doctor, or therapist, record the name, contact information, and approximate treatment dates. Keep Orlando Health, AdventHealth hospital care, and medical-group visits on separate lines.
Records status: Note the visits, test reports, or hospital records you already have, anything missing, and the date of each records request. Check received records against your treatment list.
Work demands: List your recent jobs and dates. Describe duties such as lifting, standing, driving, following instructions, or concentrating, and when your condition changed what you could do.
Daily limits: Give specific examples of tasks you cannot finish, breaks you need, or help you receive. Describe how often the problem occurs and any medication side effects you experience.
Claim documents: Keep application information, SSA requests, and decisions together. Record when a decision arrived. For SSI, also organize your income and resource information.
SSA's disability application instructions explain the medical and work information to prepare. For SSDI, SSA says not to delay applying because you do not have every document.
After a denial
What to Do After an Orlando Disability Denial
Deadline
60days
After an initial SSDI or SSI denial, reconsideration generally must be requested in writing within 60 days after you receive the notice. SSA presumes receipt five days after the notice date unless you show you did not receive it within that five-day period. Keep the notice date and actual receipt date separate when checking the deadline.
If the reconsideration deadline has passed, ask for an extension in writing and explain the delay. SSA must find good cause to grant more time; acceptance is not automatic. The SSDI reconsideration rule and SSI reconsideration rule explain these requirements.
Read the reason for denial before deciding what to add. Updated treatment records may address a medical issue; they do not by themselves resolve a question about SSDI work-credit eligibility or SSI financial eligibility. At reconsideration, we focus the response on the reasons SSA gave.
Common questions
Questions About Orlando Records, Applications, and Hearings
Do I need all my medical records before applying?
No. SSA says not to delay an SSDI application because you do not have every document. Provide the medical evidence you already have and identify your treatment sources so SSA can seek additional information. Its application instructions explain what to gather.
Can Downard help after I have already applied?
Yes. We represent adults at reconsideration and administrative hearings as well as at the application stage. Tell us where your claim stands so we can discuss the work needed at that stage.
Does my AdventHealth account contain my complete treatment history?
Not necessarily. AdventHealth says some records and historical information may not be fully available online. Its records instructions explain additional requests and list hospital and medical-group entries. Match your request to the source of your treatment rather than assuming one download includes every visit.
Will my disability hearing be in person?
SSA has four hearing methods: in person, audio by telephone, agency video using SSA equipment at an SSA office, and online video using your own device. Online video requires your agreement. Objections to audio or agency video are subject to response deadlines and exceptions. Read SSA's hearing attendance guidance and follow your notices for how and where to appear. Our Social Security hearing-office guide is a separate resource for office details.
Discuss your claim
Discuss Your Orlando Disability Claim With Downard
Contact Downard & Associates to discuss your SSDI or SSI application or appeal. Tell us how your condition has affected your work and whether you have already applied. We work with Orlando clients by phone or video.