This is Missouri disability attorney Jason Krebs and in today’s video we’re going to start a series of videos answering the question that we get on a daily basis and that is do I have a good disability case? Do I Have a Strong Disability Case? #1 Medical Records
The first question that we would ask you if you contacted our office is what’s keeping you from working? What’s your diagnosis? How much are you treating? What’s wrong with you physically or mentally?
You might have a diagnosis, but if you don’t have the treatment that goes along with that you’re going to have a very difficult case for a disability lawyer, certainly in Missouri and Arkansas where I primarily practice.
Depending on what your diagnosis is, what your illness is this is going to dictate a lot of things about how much medical records you might need.
For instance, if you’re a younger person (and Social Security looks at anybody under the age of 50 as a younger person), you’re going to need a lot of medical records and documentation with consistent claims. If you’re claiming an injury or an illness such as fibromyalgia or mental health, if you’re just going to the doctor once or twice a year, maybe once a quarter, you’re going to have a pretty difficult case. It’s probably a case that we wouldn’t take, quite frankly.
Now, if you have MRIs and blood tests, maybe you’re anemic and you only go in and have blood transfusions a couple times a year because your blood values are so low and they can measure that or you have MRIs, x-rays, CT scans that show severe problems with your back or your shoulders or your knees or the like, that may be a little different. It really is going to depend on a lot of the other factors that we’re going to go over in some of our other videos.
Social Security Administration loves objective medical evidence. That’s blood tests, x-rays, MRIs, that type of thing. They don’t really like the cases in which it’s just you going in and subjectively reporting or just saying, “I’m depressed” or “My back hurts” and there’s no objective medical evidence to support that.
That’s going to be issue number one as to whether you have a strong disability case is what’s your diagnosis? What’s your treatment? How much are you treating and what are they doing for you? How long has this been going on? How strong is your medical documentation?
Medical documentation is very important, so if you don’t have a doctor, maybe you have a diagnosis from eight or ten years ago, but you haven’t been to the doctor, you’re probably not going to have a winning case.
We’ve authored a report that you can get by calling our office. I also have a book that you can get by calling our office or emailing us from our website KrebsLawOffice.com. 1-800-345-0535 or 417-883-5886. If you’re in Missouri or Arkansas we’ll send that out to you.