Best & Anderson, P.A.

People often ask about the differences between Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and there are distinct differences between the two that only an experienced Social Security Disability Attorney can explain to you.

The Social Security Administration is the agency that is responsible for the two major programs that provide benefits based on disability: SSDI and SSI. SSDI is a disability insurance program financed with Social Security taxes paid by workers, employers, and self-employed people. To qualify for SSDI, the worker must earn a certain level of credits based on taxable work. SSDI disability benefits are payable to blind and disabled workers, widows, widowers and adults disabled since childhood if they are otherwise eligible.

SSDI benefit amounts are determined by a formula which takes into account your earnings record and allows for yearly increases in the individual benefits in order to reflect adjustments in the cost of living. The amount of your benefits is based on your average earnings for all of the years you have been working and not just your most recent salary.

SSI is a need-based government assistance program, and SSI disability benefits are payable to adults or children who are disabled or blind, have limited income and resources, meet the living arrangement requirements, and are otherwise eligible.

If you would like to learn more about SSDI or SSI benefits and which you may be eligible for, please contact the experienced Orlando, Florida Social Security Disability Attorneys Best & Anderson today to schedule your free initial consultation.

If you are disabled and unable to work, it is highly suggested you pursue a claim for Social Security Disability and get it filed immediately because disability claims can take a very long time to process. Many claimants for disability benefits have experienced severe problems and hardship because they had no idea how long the process would be. When they realized this, it was too late. If you apply and your initial claim is denied, an experienced SSDI attorney can help you with the claim for continuing and past due benefits.

A claimant will typically be approved on initial application or will have to follow the appeal route, at least to the point where your case is brought before an Administrative Law Judge at a Social Security Disability hearing. This is not always the case, but it is most often the case. Initial claims are denied up to 70% of the time, and for this reason, most claimants will have to go to a hearing if they hope to be approved. No claimant should ever go to a hearing without an attorney.

Another piece of advice is this: Since your SSDI or SSI claim will be evaluated completely on the basis of your medical records, the best advice is to get regular, ongoing medical treatment. If you lose your medical coverage before your claim for benefits is approved, as usually is the case, you should try to be seen at a free clinic, health department, or emergency room. These treatment sources may not be as good as one regular doctor, but they are better than having no treatment record at all. The general rule is that you cannot be approved for SSDI or SSI if you are not seen by a medical provider at least once every two months.

If you would like to learn more about the very lengthy and complicated process of filing for SSDI or SSI in Florida, please contact the experienced Social Security Disability Attorneys at Best & Anderson, Attorneys at Law in Orlando, Florida.

The unfortunate incident that took place on Tuesday, April 8th at the Wal-Mart on S. John Young Parkway shows the importance of keeping a high level of security at retail venues. A business owner has a legal duty to provide adequate security to protect its customers against foreseeable criminal acts of others. A criminal attack may be foreseeable if there have been prior criminal attacks at or near the business. If you or someone you know has been injured at a commercial venue due to a criminal act, call us, we may be able to help you get the compensantion you deserve.

The Orlando Sentinel reported on March 30th that a male nurse and repeat sexual offender has been preying on vulnerable patients in the Central Florida area for several years. The state of Florida has no shared database to track nurses that have been arrested. This particular nurse has been on the payroll of every major hospital in the Orlando area. Our firm has obtained compensation for victims of these types of crimes before. If you or someone you know has been a victim of this type of sexual abuse, our law firm could help you get the compensation you deserve.

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) occurs when a sudden trauma to the head causes damage to the brain. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), there are approximately 1.5 million TBI incidents reported each year.

TBI can be as simple as a minor blow to the head or a concussion, or it can be as serious as a fracture to the skull. Trauma to the head can also cause the brain to bleed or bruise, with no outward appearance of injury at all.

Motor vehicle accidents are the most common cause of TBI; other causes are falls, violence, sports-related incidents, and child abuse. The milder types of TBI can manifest themselves in the form of dizziness and headaches, and more serious injuries to the brain may include symptoms of vomiting, convulsions, slurred speech, loss of coordination, and numbness in the extremities.

People who have suffered a TBI often continue to work, and now there are many ways employees with TBI can be accommodated in the workplace. The Job Accommodation Network, which is a service of the U.S. Department of Labor, has composed a fact sheet entitled, “Employees with Brain Injuries,” describing a variety of ways employees with TBI can be accommodated in the workplace.

Better lighting, vision aids for the computers, and large print materials are just some examples of how TBI sufferers with vision problems can be accommodated. Reducing the number of distractions and the amount of clutter in their work area can aid in concentration, and tape recording meetings can certainly help with memory.

If you or a loved one has suffered a traumatic brain injury or some other personal injury in Orlando or anywhere in Florida, please contact the experienced personal injury attorneys Best & Anderson, Attorneys at Law today to schedule your free initial consultation.

Motorcycle helmet laws are highly political and hot topics of debate throughout the United States. The federal government is unable to set a national helmet policy because constitutionally-speaking, helmet law is under the jurisdiction of individual states.

However, the federal government has attempted to influence state policy in the past by creating the Highway Safety Act of 1966, which authorized the Department of Transportation to withhold portions of federal highway road construction funds from any states that did not enact motorcycle helmet laws for all riders. This Act prompted 38 states to enact a helmet law by the end of the following year, and by 1995, 47 of 50 states had a law requiring all riders to wear helmets.

However, that same year, Congress withdrew the federal requirement, and three years later, half of the states with helmet laws repealed those statutes. And, since that time, many states have modified the law to only requiring minors to wear helmets while on motorcycles. Currently, 20 states and the District of Columbia require all riders to wear helmets; 27 states have limited helmet laws; and only 3 states have absolutely no regulation on helmet use.

Though there are passionate activists on both sides of the helmet issue, most people can clearly see that helmets contribute to the surprisingly low numbers of motorcycle injuries and fatalities along our nation's highways.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a motorcycle accident in Orlando or anywhere in Florida, please contact the Motorcycle Accident Attorneys at Best & Anderson today to schedule your free initial consultation.

As reported by the Orlando Sentinel:

The family of an off-duty police officer is filing a law suit against Bank of America and the property owners of the bank's branch on Silver Star in Pine Hills. The off-duty officer was shot in his car after he used the ATM. The lawyer representing the family claims that in high-crime neighborhoods ATM's need to be more protected. Bank of America had no comment.