Do you need a Texas lawyer for your Texas disability case?

Social Security law is federal, not state. So a New York based law firm is able to represent a Texas social security disability claimant. As a result there are a number of law firms that brag about being "nationwide" and being "the most successful in the country"(translate, biggest).

But local social security representation does matter. My fellow social security attorney Geri Khan points out how she helped solve one of her client's problem "the old fashioned way" - by visiting the local security office and meeting with personnel she has grown to know over the years in her San Francisco California social security disability practice. (http://californiasocialsecuritylawyerblog.com/2009/09/14/it-helps-to-be-local/) My colleague and fellow social security disability practitioner Gordon Gates limits his representation to Maine and New Hampshire, and does a nice job on his blog in explaining why local representation matters. Read it at http://www.socialsecuritydisabilitylawyer.us/blog/2009/08/home-field-advantage.html. Gordon analogizes local social security representation to a "home field advantage" in sports - in particular, as Gordon is a New Englander after all, Fenway Park and the Boston Red Sox. I can personalize that analogy to this weekend's NFC Playoff game in Cowboy Stadium (pictured above, don't you know).

I limit my social security disability representation to Dallas Fort Worth, and North and East Texas - the areas handled by the two Dallas Hearing Offices and the one in Fort Worth. Knowing the particular style and expectations of the administrative law judges is very important. Now does this mean that Binder and Binder can't do a good job on your Dallas social security disability case? Absolutely not. But I do believe, like attorney Gates, that the "home field advantage" does matter. So can The Philadelphia Eagles win Saturday on our "home field"? Yes. Are they gonna? No way.