The most important reason to hire an attorney to help with your disability case is that your chances of being approved are significantly increased according to statistics. From the initial application to the hearing level, disability attorneys understand how to present a case in the light most favorable to their clients. On the initial application, your attorney can offer advice on your “alleged onset date” of disability, argue that your condition meets one of the listed impairments and help you focus on the facts that will be most persuasive to the Social Security Administration. At the reconsideration and hearing levels, your attorney can collect and submit relevant medical evidence, obtain an opinion from your doctor, draft a detailed brief to the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), and prepare you for the judge’s questions at the hearing. Your attorney will also elicit helpful testimony from you at the evidentiary hearing and may cross-examine the Vocational Expert or Medical Expert to demonstrate that you’re unable to work. At the next stages of appeal, the Appeals Council and federal court, your lawyer can craft sophisticated legal arguments to show that Social Security wrongly denied your case.