Sacramento, California
Sacramento Disability Lawyers for SSDI and SSI
Downard & Associates represents adults in Sacramento, California, with Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims. We help prepare applications, address denials, and represent clients at administrative hearings, working with you by phone and video. Start with a list of your treatment providers, the date your condition affected your work, and any decision you have received. We can review that information and explain the next step.
How we help
How We Help Sacramento Adults Build an Application or Appeal
The forms and records should describe what your condition prevents you from doing.
We serve Sacramento 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 prepare and file the application with the Social Security Administration (SSA), gather medical evidence, and document your work history. The forms and records should describe what your condition prevents you from doing.
Reconsideration: We examine the reasons for the denial and address missing or updated evidence. That gives the appeal a focus: the issues identified in the decision.
Administrative hearings: We develop the medical record, prepare you for questions about your condition and work, and present the legal argument at the hearing.
Service limits, including Veterans Affairs (VA) matters
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
Which SSDI and SSI Rules Apply to Sacramento Adults?
Duration rule
12months
SSDI generally requires enough work covered by Social Security, including sufficiently recent work. The work-credit requirements depend on your age when disability began. For SSDI based on statutory blindness, SSA requires fully insured status but does not apply the ordinary recent-work test. Read SSA’s SSDI eligibility explanation.
SSI does not require an SSDI insured-work record. It has limits on income and countable resources, along with other eligibility requirements. Adults may qualify based on age 65 or older, statutory blindness, or disability. SSA’s SSI eligibility requirements explain these categories.
For most adult SSDI claims and adult SSI claims based on disability, a medically determinable physical or mental condition must prevent 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; a claim can be decided earlier. You do not have to wait a year before applying when the expected duration meets the rule. Special SSDI work and duration rules apply to statutory blindness.
SSI statutory blindness follows 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 requirements still apply.
Treatment records
Requesting UC Davis Health Records for a Sacramento Claim
Keep track of what arrives and what is still missing.
If you receive care through UC Davis Health, you can request copies of your medical records electronically through MyUCDavisHealth. Its Release of Information instructions also allow completed authorizations by email, fax, or mail. Walk-in service is not available.
Before making a request, list the treatment dates and types of records you are seeking. Keep track of what arrives and what is still missing. If you also received care from other providers, list those sources separately rather than treating one portal as your entire treatment history.
Collecting your own copies can help you organize the claim, but missing documents are not a reason to delay applying. SSA’s application instructions say to provide the information you have; SSA can help obtain missing documents.
Get organized
A Treatment and Work Checklist for Your Sacramento Claim
Use this checklist to connect treatment, work changes, and agency correspondence. Record what you know and identify gaps.
Treatment list: Write each relevant provider’s name, contact details, treatment dates, and the reason for care. Include clinics, hospitals, therapists, and care received outside Sacramento.
Records log: Note the provider, the date you requested records, the period requested, what you received, and any missing visits or tests. Keep copies of records already in your possession.
Work changes: Describe your actual duties, hours, lifting, standing, concentration demands, and accommodations. Add when symptoms changed those duties or caused you to stop working. Follow the reporting period on the form SSA sends you.
Agency letters: Keep each decision with its envelope. Record the date on the notice, when you received it, the agency that sent it, and the requested response. Separate medical-information requests from decisions denying benefits.
SSI information: If seeking SSI, organize income, resources, and living-arrangement details. Those requirements are separate from the medical standard.
After a denial
Responding to a Sacramento 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 normally 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, ask for an extension in writing and explain why you missed the deadline. SSA must find good cause; an extension is not automatic.
Common questions
Questions About Disability Claims From Sacramento
Are older UC Davis Health notes available if I cannot see them online?
UC Davis Health says most visit and hospital notes can be viewed through MyUCDavisHealth. Notes from before November 2020 are not immediately available online, but can be requested through Health Information Management. Use its Open Notes guidance to identify the appropriate request process.
Is California EDD Disability Insurance the same as SSDI or SSI?
No. California’s Employment Development Department (EDD) administers Disability Insurance, which provides short-term wage replacement to eligible workers with qualifying non-work-related conditions. SSDI and SSI are separate federal programs administered by SSA. Identify which program and agency a decision concerns before following its appeal instructions.
Will I need to travel for a Social Security hearing?
Your hearing notices provide the attendance instructions. SSA describes four ways to attend: 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. Objections to audio or agency video are subject to SSA’s rules and exceptions. Respond within the time limits in the Notice of Ways to Attend a Hearing. Our hearing-office guide provides office information; your scheduling notice controls your case’s location and method.
Can Downard help me without a Sacramento office visit?
Yes. We represent Sacramento adults with SSDI and SSI matters and work with clients by phone and video. We do not have a California office. Communication with our team is separate from the hearing arrangements SSA schedules.
Discuss your claim
Discuss Your Houston Disability Claim With Downard
Tell us how your condition has affected your work, where you have received treatment, and whether you have applied or received a denial. We can review your situation and discuss the next step.