So - I got a letter from the Social Security Disability Appeals board last week end. It says that there is no basis to appeal my trial. That I am able to work a "basic" job. My attorney wrote the appeal based on 700 mistakes that the judge made in his decision. All I needed the appeals counsel to agree with was ONE!!!! (one of the major stand outs was that the judge said I am 5'7" - WRONG, I am 5'9"!) Jeez!
My attorney's office called last Monday and set up a phone appointment for me to talk directly to my attorney on friday at 4:00pm. That day I got a letter from his office stating that I can appeal my case to the supreme court, but that he wouldn't do it and that he was closing my case, oh and that I didn't owe him any money. Needless to say, he did NOT keep our phone appointment for 4:00!
I just wanted the chance to tell him that I blame HIM for losing the case! I hired a female attornefy from his office in January of 2011. She had worked with me for 2 years. A few months before my hearing she had brought me in and also spoke with me on the phone; we went over EVERYTHING that was going to happen in the courtroom and every question that she would ask me and every piece of evidence that she was going to submit. She also informed me that there would be a job coach/professional at the hearing and that I wasn not to directly answer ANY of his questions, that I was only to answer questions posed by herself or the judge. She said that the job professional might ask leading questions and that if I didn't use the correct wording it could mess up the whole case.
The morning of my hearing (mine was the first hearing on Tuesday morning, following Memorial Day week-end of 2013), I was sitting in the waiting room and a man walks up to me and says "Are you Shannon Leak?" I answered that I was and a he proceeded to tell me his name and that he was my attorney. I said "um, no. My attorney is a woman." He then informed me that she had had to resign from the firm because of personal emergency and that she had handed my case over to him, two weeks prior and that her last day had been the previous friday (friday before Memorial Day week-end 2013). He assured me that he had been fully briefed on my case. I felt uneasy, but thought "well, I am not an attorney, surely he must know what he is doing."
I couldn't have been more wrong. He did not ask ANY of the questions that I had been prepared for. When the job professional asked me questions, the attorney just sat there - I looked his way and he just looked at me like "why don't you answer his question". When the attorney did ask me questions, it was: You say it takes you longer to do laundry - how many minutes does it take? or Your doctor states that you cannot work full time - how many hours can you work? or You say you have to take frequent naps and breaks - how many naps do you take and how many minutes do you need to take a break? Come On!!!! Really? I don't time them! He also asked a lot of questions about "what does your doctor say about this...?" Hello? That is hearsay and you should have subpeana'd him!
The judge only asked me one set of questions. He read on my paperwork that one of the things I used to like to do was read. He asked "It says here that you used to read. What kind of things do you like to read? Why don't you read anymore? Do you need glasses?" I responded "I like to read history, especially native american history, biographies and civil war era novels. No, I don't need glasses, I just had lasik eye surgery. I can't read anymore, because my brain is so foggy that I have a hard time with reading comprehension." Well, guess what that came out as in his decision?----claimant is of higher intelligence and education and is an avid reader. (I just wonder what that court reporter was really doing behind that computer screen, she must have been watching soap operas or something because she sure didn't type WHAT I SAID!)
I blame that attorney because it was HIS job to ask for a CONTINUANCE!!! All he had to do was explain the situation to the judge! It wasn't my job to do or even know that I could have done that!
For the nay-sayers that are thinking "well, just get off you lazy butt and go to work. You must be fine the judge and appeals counsel said so." I WOULD LOVE TO GO BACK TO WORK! I have worked since I was 15 years old! Just when I think "Oh I am feeling so much better and having a remission - I am going to get a job." that is the exact moment when a flare rears its ugly head. The last two fridays in a row, I have had major dizzy spells and the first one came along with blacked out vision and slurred speach. WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO GET A JOB THAT I CAN KEEP?
My mind works like lightning - one great flash and it's gone.