How to gather leads for Social Security Disability?

Are you bringing something to the table or did you just happen to buy a disability "consultant" biz opp program?

If the latter, stay away.

Your clients need professional help from people who at least know how to talk to Administrative Law Judges; how, who, and when to call in outside experts such as vocational consultants, etc.

You are NOT needed for them to file initial claims or reconsiderations. If you get them at this stage, you're ripping them off.

Professional reps are needed at hearing and appeals council levels, and these can take years. How long will it take you to get through law school?

Do you plan to specialize in this field once you are a lawyer?

If so, nothing wrong with trying to get some experience - see if you can get a job helping a lawyer who specializes in disability, but not a personal injury ambulance chaser who does SSA worker on the side. If the firm runs radio ads sounding like Denzel Washington in Philadelphia, stay away.

Or maybe you could get a job at Allsup or one of the other disability consulting firms, though I don't know if they have facilities outside Belleville Il.

Heck, see if you can get a job with SSA or your local state agency and go to law school at night.

I was a claims representative for 30 years, and consequently have a very low opinion of almost all lawyers in this field. But at least most are half-way professional. They'd be better than an ignorant part-timer who barely knows an EKG from an EEG.

Also, the paperwork and system to get paid is complex in and of itself, especially if SSI is involved.

Oh yes, you won't get paid until after a favorable hearing decision, which as I mentioned could easily take a year or so in and of itself. Heck, it takes them months to write up the decision after the hearing is held. Then you have to wait for the decision to be implemented and the back pay to be calculated.

If you rely on your clients, many will rip you off.

It can be quite lucrative for lawyers who are organized and who can wait a year or so for their first check as they build their pipeline of leads to hearings.

Look around this forum for a lot better and easier and quicker ways to make extra money while going to school.

I would suggest for SSI Disability clients you would do better with offline advertising than most of what you can do online, especially if you have a small budget. Things like putting up flyers in places (parking lots)where unemployed might be going for other benefits.

I cannot tell from your post. Have you finished law school and passed the bar? If yes, are you going to open your own office or have you gone to work for another lawyer?

If you are going to work for another lawyer, you need to follow that lawyer and do what he/she says.

If you are opening your own office, for online promotion I would suggest several things. First, do in depth keyword research using your locale and all forms of "disability", get a locality-keyword domain that is searched, build a website, and work to make your website rank at the top of Google. Second, get a face book page and start making friends on the internet.

For offline promotion, get out the phone directory and start at the top. Call each lawyer. Tell them that you are a new lawyer and ask if you can go by to meet them and introduce yourself. You will be surprised at how many will refer business to you.

As one of the posters has already said, you will not be paid for social security disability until after you win the appeal. It usually takes 6 mo. to a year from the time that you take a disability case to get paid. On top of that you will probably incur expenses for medical records etc. while handling the case.

Hope this helps you just like part of this advise helped me when I got started. Good luck.

What you are essentially asking is for people that know how to generate a certain kind of lead to tell you on a public forum how they do it so that you can move in on them and take their leads. Good luck with that.

Thanks everyone! Some real gems in here.