Mary lived in a small town in South Carolina and worked as billing clerk for a large company when she suffered a heart attack and underwent open heart coronary bypass surgery around age 50. She had other medical problems that became worse after her surgery.

When she attempted a return to work, her performance was off, and she was missing a lot of time due to illness. Eventually, she stopped work completely.

Mary hired a general practice lawyer to handle her Social Security disability claim, but was denied after a hearing held before an administrative law judge. The Appeals Council reversed the unfavorable decision and ordered a new hearing. Mary then hired another general practice lawyer, but the case was denied a second time. Mary’s attorney told her that he did not handle federal court appeals and she would have to find another attorney to appeal her case.

Mary then received a recommendation to contact The Law Offices of Robertson Wendt, whose practice is solely focused on Social Security and other disability claims. The case was accepted and an appeal to federal court was immediately filed. 

Because the previous attorneys had failed to get any written opinions from Mary’s doctors, Rob's disability law team made arrangements for her to be evaluated by a doctor who expressed an opinion about her work-related functional limitations. The federal court looked at the new evidence and remanded the case to Social Security to schedule a new hearing before an administrative law judge so the new opinion evidence could be considered.

On remand, a hearing was held before a new administrative law judge who reviewed the entire case including the new evidence and issued a fully favorable decision.  Mary received almost six years of retroactive benefits.

Read about Joe, a stroke victim whose Social Security disability claim was also denied... at first.

Note: The results achieved by the Law Offices of Robertson Wendt in these case studies do not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.