comment: >
  
  Her case took 5 years and five appeals. My guess is that he petitioned to allow his fee to increase, I don't blame him. In my opinion, it's well worth the cost for my mom. My mother also believes he was well worth the cost.
context: The purposeful construction of impassable hurdles for social safety nets is some next level dystopian shit. >
  
  Social murder >
  
  Cruelty is the point. >
  
  
  He had made it through four years of denials and appeals, and Robert Heard was finally before a Social Security judge who would decide whether he qualified for disability benefits. Two debilitating strokes had left the 47-year-old electrician with halting speech, an enlarged heart and violent tremors.
  There was just one final step: A vocational expert hired by the Social Security Administration had to tell the judge if there was any work Heard could still do despite his condition. Heard was stunned as the expert canvassed his computer and announced his findings: He could find work as a nut sorter, a dowel inspector or an egg processor — jobs that virtually no longer exist in the United States.
  [...]
  But while the judge agreed that Heard had multiple, severe impairments, he denied him benefits, writing that he had “job opportunities” in three occupations that are nearly obsolete and agreeing with the expert’s dubious claim that 130,000 positions were still available sorting nuts, inspecting dowels and processing eggs.
  [...]
  The jobs are spelled out in an exhaustive publication known as the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. The vast majority of the 12,700 entries were last updated in 1977. The Department of Labor, which originally compiled the index, abandoned it 31 years ago in a sign of the economy’s shift from blue-collar manufacturing to information and services. >
  
  What about challenging them on the claim that "he had 'job opportunities' in three occupations" by asking them to produce job postings for those jobs? >
  
  you can't.  my mom dealt with SS disability for 5 years before hers was approved, and they came up with 3 jobs she could do, 3 times over, just like this guy, and she had to appeal it 4 times thru her lawyer because those jobs didn't physically exist anymore.  She finally asked for a different judge, and the judge finally granted it after the same bullshit.  It cost her 5 years, and 12000 in lawyers fees to get her disability benefits.  when the lawyer started filing paperwork to get challenge the constitutionality of the list of jobs, she was approved.  this took 5 years.  5 years too long.  the system was broken by republicans in the 1970's, and was done that way on purpose to make it impossible to get benefits you pay for and earned. >
  
  That lawyer did her a solid. That sounds like way more than 12k worth of attorneys fees. >
  
  They usually do these as a percentage, and only collect if they win... >
  
  If they are a Disability Attorney they only collect when the disability is approved. It's max of 25% and $6000.00 >
  
  I don't know where you got the $6,000 cap, but they can charge whatever they want, and yes he did indeed have to wait until she won. Super nice guy though knew how to work the system really well.