Home market, practicing disability law since 2002
Tennessee Disability Lawyers: Six Hearing Offices Decide Your SSDI Claim
Six Social Security hearing offices decide Tennessee disability claims: Nashville, Franklin, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga and Kingsport. Which one takes your case is set by the field office serving your address, not by distance.
Every case here is a disability case, and it has been that way for more than two decades. If you cannot work and Social Security said no, the first thing worth knowing is which of the state's six hearing offices your address routes to, because that assignment affects your wait and is not something you pick on a form. We work from Lebanon, in Wilson County, and we represent claimants in every county in Tennessee.
6
SSA hearing offices deciding Tennessee claims
2002
Practicing disability law since
No fee
Unless you win
Why the office matters
Which Tennessee Hearing Office Decides Your Disability Claim?
It does not follow driving distance and it is not a preference you enter on a form.
The hearing office assigned to your case is the one that serves the Social Security field office for your address, and Social Security can transfer a case after a move. It does not follow driving distance and it is not a preference you enter on a form. You can object in writing to the place of the hearing, giving your reasons and the place you want, and the judge decides whether there is good cause to change it.
In Tennessee that produces assignments most people would not guess. Murfreesboro is a Nashville-metro city and its claims are heard at Franklin. Jackson sits in West Tennessee and is also heard at Franklin. Johnson City goes to Kingsport. The Gallatin and Madison field offices route into Nashville. Four of the six offices also reach across a state line, into Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi or North Carolina.
None of that changes the standard applied to your file, which is federal and does not change with the office. What it changes is whose calendar your hearing date comes off, and how long that calendar is. Our hearings page walks through what happens after a hearing is requested.
One thing, done long
Tennessee Disability Appeals Are the Only Work This Firm Takes
Disability is the only work this firm takes. That is not a positioning line, it is a description of the caseload: no personal injury, no family law, no criminal defense sharing the calendar with your hearing.
What comes with doing one thing for that long is a working knowledge of where claims actually fail. A claim can fail on the record rather than on the law, when the file that reaches a judge does not describe the condition the person is living with. That is the part of the process we can move, and it is the part the months before a hearing are for.
SSA hearing offices
The Six SSA Hearing Offices That Decide Tennessee Disability Claims
Hearing offices
6decide this state's claims
Average wait times change from month to month. Social Security publishes the average wait time for each hearing office in a monthly report, so check the office that takes your claim.
Six hearing offices decide Tennessee claims: Chattanooga, Franklin, Kingsport, Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville. Chattanooga also takes claims filed in Georgia, Franklin also takes claims filed in Alabama, Kingsport also takes claims filed in North Carolina, and Memphis also takes claims filed in Arkansas and Mississippi.
Every field office assignment and office address is on our hearing office routing page.
Hearings at every office are held by phone, by video or in person. Service areas name Social Security field offices, not counties.
Cities we serve
Tennessee Cities We Serve
We represent claimants across Tennessee. The five cities below have their own pages. The hearing office for any address is on the routing page.
Tennessee SSDI Questions: Hearing Offices, Appeals and Coverage
Which Tennessee hearing office will decide my case?
One of six, and it is set by the Social Security field office that serves your address rather than by which city is closest. Nashville, Franklin, Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga and Kingsport each take a defined group of field offices. Some of the assignments are not what the map suggests: Murfreesboro goes to Franklin rather than Nashville, Johnson City goes to Kingsport, and Jackson goes to Franklin even though it sits in West Tennessee.
Tennessee did not expand Medicaid. Can I get coverage while I wait?
For most working-age adults there is no income-based route into TennCare, so the disability finding is the door. TennCare rules enroll SSI-eligible individuals on the basis of that eligibility rather than through a separate application, which means the SSI decision that starts the payment starts the coverage. An SSDI-only approval leads to Medicare instead, after two years of disability benefits. The practical consequence is that a claimant can be uninsured during the wait, and the medical records a judge later reads are the records they could afford to generate.
Does the firm have an office in my Tennessee city?
We work from one office, at 207 S College St in Lebanon, and we represent claimants across the state from there. Consultations are by phone or video, and Social Security offers hearings by online video and by phone as well as in person, so the distance between you and Lebanon is rarely the thing that matters. What matters is which of the six hearing offices has your file.
I got denied. How long do I have to appeal?
Sixty days from the date you receive the denial, and Social Security assumes you received it five days after the date on the letter. The appeal is a reconsideration, and in Tennessee it goes back to the same state agency that issued the denial, so the request should add evidence that answers the reason given for the denial. A denial is a stage in the process, not a verdict on the claim.
What does it cost to hire us?
You pay no fee unless you win. Attorney fees in Social Security cases are set by federal law and capped at 25 percent of past-due benefits or $9,200 (for favorable decisions on or after November 30, 2024), whichever is less, under the fee agreement process at 42 U.S.C. 406(a)(2)(A).
Denied in Tennessee? Let us look at it.
Free case review, no obligation. We respond within 3 business hours.