Picture this: you made the difficult decision to stop working because of physical or mental impairments and decide to apply for disability benefits. You undertake the overwhelming process of filing the initial application for disability benefits, fill out endless forms, probably get scheduled for an examination with an independent doctor that Social Security pays for, and then you get denied nine to twelve months later. After all, almost everyone gets denied at least once.
What do you do next?
The answer for many people is to give up, either because they are overwhelmed or feel defeated; however, it is important to act quickly to protect your appeal rights because Social Security only gives you sixty days from the date of the decision to file an appeal. But what do you do if you miss the appeal deadline?
Unfortunately, I frequently get calls from potential new clients who tell me that they were denied more than sixty days ago and that the Social Security office or another attorney told them all they can do is file a new application. While this may be correct in some cases, for instance if it has been more than six months since they received the denial, it is not correct in all cases, thanks to a wondrous concept called “good cause.”
Essentially, if you have a good reason for missing the sixty-day appeal deadline, you can still file an appeal of the decision along with a letter explaining why you missed the deadline and ask Social Security to process the appeal as if it had been filed by the deadline. Examples of good cause for late filing include hospitalization, family emergencies, not receiving a copy of the decision, etc. These are just examples. I have had great success in filing appeals after the deadline when the good cause for late filing was that my new client did not have an attorney when they received the denial letter, they did not know what to do, so they just gave up. I would estimate that since I opened my practice in 2020, I have filed no less than ten good cause requests and all of them were granted, meaning that no one had to start over with a new application. A well-crafted good cause request can save claimants months, if not years.
If you receive a denial of your application for disability benefits from Social Security, do not give up without a fight, even if you are outside the sixty-day appeal period. Call an experienced Social Security Disability attorney like me to discuss your options.