Learn from my mistake and don't make the same one that I did!
I had a conservatorship done about 5 years ago with an attorney who referred me to Pamela saying she would take my disability case. She was very hard to get ahold of on the telephone, only talked to me all of about 3 entire hours on the telephone in that 3 years leading up to my case. So it took 3 years before my case went to hearing. (Keep in mind I am unable to work and have zero income and am barely able to keep myself fed, dressed and alive, while waiting on this case, zero income, can't work, the only help I have is from one family member.) My case goes to hearing and she only talked to me for an hour the night before, probably the 3rd time in those 3 years that we had spoken. She didn't remember tons of details about my case and my healthcare issues during the hearing, here's the best part; my case was filed under SSDI, you need to have a certain amount of work history, which I had told her my work history I had that would make me inapplicable. I shouldn't need to be the legal expert, know legal terminology, or be the one presenting my case in court, that's what your attorney is supposed to be for. An attorney who works in this field should know this, like this should be one of the first things you learn the differences between qualifying factors. They said I would have never been able to be approved for SSDI, and my attorney should have picked up on this being filed completely wrong. So I could never be approved for SSDI, and my case was lost. Her paralegal told me to come pick up my files at her office, never spoke to me ever again after the hearing. She never spoke to me after or even apologized (I wouldn't be as upset if maybe at least a little compassion or understanding was showed or displayed toward me, but nope!) I lost 3 years of retroactive payment, and 3 years of my life! So I had to refile my case myself under the correct case (SSI, NOT SSDI) and find a competent law firm. It is 5 years later, my new case still hasn't gone to court, still wearing the same clothes from 5 years ago, still eating ramen and oatmeal almost every meal, years of my life completely wasted with nothing to show for it, while I'm sure Pamela got paid pretty nicely (I guess as long as you're getting paid who cares about the client, right?). How can an attorney who "specializes" in a field not know a case is filed completely wrong and filed under something it would never qualify for? I learned a valuable life lesson at a very high cost, don't take blind referrals and don't trust anyone that you do not know. My mental health and physical health has gone completely to hell over this case, completely tanked. My seizure disorder has gotten so bad from the stress I have had to be put on new seizure medication and have had seizures so bad that last year I completely compressed fractured both vertebrae T1 and L1, changing my whole back structure completely, and gave myself two inguinal groin hernias from losing consciousness and straining after hitting the ground during seizure episodes. Now I'm waiting on yet another surgery. My seizures have never been so bad in my life as they have been since this case and the stress of all of this. I haven't been in this bad of a spot in a long time. If your life depends on recieving benefits, don't make the same mistake I did. 5 years later with nothing to show for my life, nothing except my health even further deteriorating, and the progress my new law firm has made. I hope and pray that no one goes through what I've gone through and loses a half decade of their life absolutely and completely with not a single thing to show for it. I legitimately don't have any quality of life left, I am literally at my lowest possible point in my entire life, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. This experience made me completely and totally disillusioned with just about everything in my entire life. I'm still as upset as I was over a year ago when this happened. And I will continue to be, for good reason. You don't do this to people who are in dire need of help.