Appeals Council

If your claim for Social Security disability benefits has been denied at the hearing level by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), you will have sixty days after receipt of the hearing decision to file a request for review by the Appeals Council. Viner Disability Law can review your case for an appeal to the Appeals Council. If the ALJ made an error of fact or law in denying your claim for disability benefits, we will file a timely brief asking the Appeals Council to review specific aspects of the ALJ’s unfavorable decision.

If the Appeals Council agrees that the ALJ made an error in denying your claim, the Appeals Council can either grant your claim for disability benefits outright, which is a rare occurrence, or remand your claim back to the hearing level for further development with specific directives for the ALJ to resolve certain issues at a second hearing. However, if the Appeals Council rejects the the arguments put forth in the brief filed on your behalf and denies your claim, your claim must then be evaluated for an appeal to the United States District Court.

Contact Us

If your claim for disability benefits has been denied by an ALJ and your appeal window of sixty days is still open, please call our office or fill out the contact form on this site for a free consultation. We will need to review a copy of the unfavorable decision issued by the ALJ who decided your claim and your Social Security exhibit file.