Hearing Loss Association, Long Beach/Lakewood Chapter, (HLA) a support group offering education on coping skills and resources to help the hearing-impaired survive in a hearing world, will host guest speaker Megan F. DiTolla, Esq., who will be speaking on “Documenting Disability: Navigating the Social Security Disability Claims Process” on Thursday, July 9. HLA meets at 6:30pm on the second Thursday of each month at the Weingart Senior Center, 5220 Oliva Ave., in Lakewood. Admission is free. Reservations are not necessary.
DiTolla, an attorney with the West Coast Disability Law Group, LLP of Van Nuys, will give a brief history of the Social Security Disability Program, the difference between Social Security Disability (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and the definition of disability as it is defined by the Social Security Administration (every government entity uses their own specific definition). Also covered will be the time frames and stages in a SSDI/SSI claim, how the Social Security Administration assesses hearing-loss cases and tips for winning a claim if hearing loss prevents employment.
One of the founding attorneys of West Coast Disability Law Group, LLP, DiTolla and cofounder Cari M. Schwartz, Esq. have a combined 10 years of experience handling Social Security Disability claims at all levels of the administrative and judicial process. They left the nation’s largest Social Security Disability law firm in the United States to start a firm that still provides legal services for the disabled but also focuses on community outreach and education.
Having conducted more than 1,700 Social Security Disability benefit and Supplemental Security Income hearings before Administrative Law judges all over the Western United States, DiTolla and Schwartz have a wide range of experience and vast expertise in this area of law. They frequently present to support groups, hospitals and nonprofits on the latest changes and issues in Social Security Disability law.
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