Shreveport, Louisiana
Shreveport Disability Lawyers for SSDI and SSI
Downard & Associates represents adults in Shreveport, 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, gather medical evidence, and prepare for administrative hearings. Start with a list of your treatment providers and the work your condition makes difficult. If you have already been denied, include the decision and the date you received it.
How we help
How We Build a Shreveport Application or Appeal
For SSI, we help complete the application and its financial disclosures.
We serve Shreveport clients from Tennessee by phone and video. Our Louisiana disability representation page explains our statewide service.
Applications: We help prepare and file SSDI applications, gather treatment records, and document work history. For SSI, we help complete the application and its financial disclosures.
Reconsideration: After a denial, we file the appeal and gather additional evidence. For an SSI denial, we focus on the medical or financial reason the Social Security Administration (SSA) gives for its decision.
Administrative hearings: We develop the medical record, prepare you to answer questions about your symptoms and limitations, and present your case 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
Which Disability Program Can a Shreveport Adult Apply For?
Duration rule
12months
SSDI generally requires enough recent work covered by Social Security. The work-credit requirements depend on your age when disability began. For SSDI based on statutory blindness, fully insured status is required, but the ordinary recent-work test does not apply. See SSA's 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. Read 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. If 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.
Your treatment records
Requesting Ochsner LSU Health Records in Shreveport
Its records page provides separate release forms for Academic Medical Center, St. Mary Medical Center, and Monroe Medical Center.
If you received care at Ochsner LSU Health's Academic Medical Center in Shreveport, its medical-record request instructions explain what a written authorization needs. Sign and date the request, name the recipient and address, identify the records you want, and specify the treatment dates.
Ochsner LSU Health also lets MyChart users view, download, print, and request their records. Its records page provides separate release forms for Academic Medical Center, St. Mary Medical Center, and Monroe Medical Center. Use the form for the facility where you received care.
Make a separate entry for each other hospital, clinic, specialist, or therapist who treated you. Include where tests were performed and the approximate dates. When you receive records, compare them with your treatment list and note what is still missing. A single portal account should not replace a list of all your treatment sources.
Get organized
Connect Your Shreveport Treatment History to Your Work Limits
Use this checklist to give your application more detail than a diagnosis alone. Keep the information in one place and update it when your treatment or work changes.
Treatment list: Record each provider and facility, contact information, dates of care, medications, and tests. For an Ochsner LSU records request, add the facility and date range you selected.
Request log: Note when you requested records, where they should be sent, what arrived, and what remains missing. Keep copies of your requests.
Actual job duties: List the dates you worked and what each job required. Describe difficulties with tasks such as lifting, standing, concentrating, or keeping a regular schedule. Give examples of what changed and when.
SSI financial information: Gather income records, account information, other resources, and details of your living arrangement for the financial disclosures.
Agency correspondence: Keep decisions, information requests, and appointment notices. Record when you received each one and when you responded.
Do not delay applying because some documents are missing. SSA's application instructions say it can help obtain missing documents.
After a denial
After an SSDI or SSI Denial in Shreveport
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 decision instructions promptly. The SSDI reconsideration rule, SSI reconsideration rule, SSDI hearing-request rule, and SSI hearing-request rule explain the request and extension requirements.
Local claim process
Medical Review and Hearing Instructions for a Shreveport Claim
SSA checks nonmedical eligibility. Louisiana Disability Determination Services (DDS) develops medical evidence and makes the initial determination of disability or blindness. DDS usually seeks evidence from your own medical sources first; if it is unavailable or insufficient, DDS may arrange an examination. SSA's disability determination explanation describes these roles.
For a later hearing appeal, check the office named in your case correspondence. SSA's hearing-office locator and our hearing-office guide provide general office information; a directory listing does not establish your individual assignment.
SSA offers four ways to attend a hearing: in person, audio by telephone, agency video using SSA equipment, and 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. Follow the response instructions and deadlines in the Notice of Ways to Attend a Hearing. SSA's hearing options explain the methods.
Your scheduling notice provides the time, attendance method, and location when applicable. The directory alone does not establish where you must appear; an in-person hearing may use a hearing office or another scheduled site. Phone and video communication with our firm is separate from SSA's hearing arrangements.
Common questions
Questions From Shreveport SSDI and SSI Applicants
Does a MyChart account replace a list of all my doctors?
No. SSA asks for your treatment sources, medications, and tests. Ochsner LSU Health offers record access through MyChart, but you should also list care received elsewhere. Note which provider or facility has each part of your treatment history.
What should I put on an Ochsner LSU Health records authorization?
Its instructions require a signed and dated authorization that identifies the recipient's name and address, the information requested, and your treatment dates. Select the form for the facility where you received care.
Does a letter from DDS mean a judge is reviewing my case?
Not by itself. DDS develops medical evidence and makes the initial disability or blindness determination. A later administrative law judge hearing is a different stage. Read the letter to see what information or action the agency is requesting.
Does Downard have an office in Shreveport?
No. We are based in Tennessee and have no Louisiana office. We work with Shreveport clients by phone and video.
Discuss your claim
Talk With Downard About Your Shreveport Disability Claim
Tell us how your condition affects your work, where you have received treatment, and whether you are applying or appealing. Contact Downard & Associates to discuss representation.