Virginia Social Security Disability Lawyer

Corey R. PollardWorkers’ compensation attorney · Former insurance defense · $100M+ recovered

Denied by Social Security? You are not the exception. You are the rule. Call (804) 251-1620.

Quick answers

Social Security denies most disability claims. That is not an accident.

I am Corey Pollard. I have handled more than 2,000 Social Security disability claims in Virginia, recovered more than $100 million for injured and disabled clients, and spent fifteen years taking on insurers and government agencies that would rather say no.

The Social Security Administration turns down the majority of disability applications it receives in Virginia. Then it turns down most requests for reconsideration. Stuck in that red tape is a person who worked for decades, paid into the trust fund with taxes taken from their paycheck, got sick or hurt, and now cannot pay the mortgage or rent.

That person is you, or someone you love.

Before I represented claimants, I worked for employers and insurers defending workers’ compensation cases. I know how a file gets built against you to prove you are not disabled, because I used to build them.

Now I use that knowledge to strengthen my clients’ Social Security disability claims.

What I do for you

I build the medical evidence Social Security will accept, find the theory that wins your case, and take apart the vocational expert testimony that would otherwise sink it.

Filing a disability claim is easy. Anyone can do it online in an afternoon, or by making an appointment at one of Social Security’s field offices in Virginia. Winning one is different work, and it starts long before the hearing.

Here is what I do as your Virginia disability lawyer:

Build the medical record

Your doctor diagnoses and treats you. Your therapist or counselor provides tools to help you manage your symptoms and improve your quality of life. But none of your providers have read Social Security’s regulations or received training in how to advocate for a patient seeking Social Security disability.

This lack of familiarity can hurt your disability claim. Social Security treats a chart note that says “patient reports pain” much differently than a doctor’s opinion letter that says: “I have treated this man for back pain for five years and reviewed his lumbar spine MRIs. He cannot sit for more than twenty minutes at a time because he gets shooting pain down the right leg, and he will need to take five unscheduled breaks lasting ten minutes each, so that he can lie down to relieve the stiffness from standing or sitting for long stretches.”

I help you get the second one, tailored to your specific medical impairments and the criteria Social Security uses to review your disability claim. I know which questions to ask and which forms make a judge look twice.

Develop the theory of your case

Every winning case has one. Sometimes it means arguing that you meet a listing for your diagnosed condition at step three of Social Security’s five-step disability evaluation process. Sometimes it means using the grid rules, officially called the Medical-Vocational Guidelines, at step five of the evaluation. Proving disability under the grid rules depends on your age, education, and transferable skills you developed in your previous jobs. And sometimes it means proving you have a residual functional capacity so limited that no job in the national economy fits.

Most claimants never learn that their case has a theory. But when I am your Virginia disability lawyer, you do.

Cross-examine the vocational expert

Unless you meet one of Social Security’s listings of impairments — which is difficult to do — your hearing will likely be won or lost on the vocational expert’s testimony. But many fail to prepare for this step.

At your disability hearing, the expert will name jobs you can supposedly do in response to hypothetical questions about work restrictions. These jobs come from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, which the government last updated in the 1990s. I have spent years studying the sources vocational experts rely on and testing unfavorable testimony, job by job, number by number, until the testimony cracks.

Watch the money

Past earnings affect your eligibility for Social Security disability. First, the length of time you worked and the amount of taxes paid into the system determine your date last insured. You must prove disability before the date last insured; otherwise, you cannot receive Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits. Second, past earnings affect your monthly benefit amount.

But Social Security sometimes gets the earnings wrong. I have seen a single misapplied quarter move a claimant’s date last insured, and misapplied earnings can disqualify you. As your disability attorney, I read every document in your claim file and every figure.

Look at the whole picture

A disability claim rarely travels alone. If you were hurt at work, you may have a Virginia workers’ compensation claim. I have lost track of the number of times I have spoken with a potential disability client who can no longer work because of an occupational injury or work-related illness, but did not realize they could also bring a workers’ comp claim.

Similarly, if someone else caused your injury, you may have a personal injury case.

These cases interact with each other and, if handled badly, can cost you money. I handle all of them under one roof.

Why claimants hire me

Because I have done this two thousand times, because I do not stop when a judge says no, and because you will be dealing with me.

I have handled more than 2,000 Social Security disability claims, from the first application through the last appeal. Volume is not the point. What volume buys is pattern recognition, knowing before I open your file which of the five steps your case will turn on, which judge will want which record, and which argument the agency has already rejected a hundred times and will reject again.

I try cases, too. Bench trials before Deputy Commissioners and administrative law judges, jury trials in circuit court, and oral argument before panels of appellate judges. Preparation looks different when the lawyer doing it has stood before a jury or answered judges’ questions on the fly. Before any of that, I worked for employers and insurers, and I learned how a file gets built to prove you are not disabled by building them.

I do not stop at the hearing. When an administrative law judge gets it wrong, most disability representatives withdraw. Not me. I file a request for review with the Appeals Council. If that fails, I file suit in federal court. I have taken dozens of Social Security cases to the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia and won remands in many of them. Two you can track yourself: Hagan v. Bisignano and Brown v. O’Malley.

My appellate work in Virginia workers’ compensation has produced published decisions that other lawyers now cite. I do not accept that a rule is a rule because an agency says so. The judge who denied you is not the last word, and the agency knows which lawyers are willing to say so in federal court.

Nearly every disability hearing in Virginia is now held by telephone or by video. From my offices in Richmond and Hampton Roads I represent claimants in every corner of the Commonwealth, Bristol to Winchester, Wise County to the Eastern Shore, and I appear at their hearings without asking them to drive four hours to a federal building. If you would rather appear in person, I will be in the room with you. If you would rather appear from your kitchen table, I will prepare you for that and be on the line.

I know the hearing offices here. Virginia claimants are assigned to one of five: Richmond, Norfolk, Roanoke, Charlottesville, or Falls Church. Each has its own style. Judges who read the file before the hearing and those who read it during the hearing. Judges who take the vocational expert’s testimony at face value, and others who closely follow your disability lawyer’s cross-examination of that expert. And judges who will negotiate the onset date of disability with you, so that you leave the hearing knowing that back pay and benefits are on the way. Social Security publishes every judge’s approval rate, and I read them and talk with my colleagues before a hearing, so I know what you and I can expect. For example, the approval rate for the Richmond hearing office is below the national average.

Either way, you will hear from me. Not a paralegal. Not a call center. Me.

Credentials, briefly. Cum laude, College of William & Mary. University of Richmond School of Law. Admitted to the Virginia State Bar and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia. More than fifteen years in practice. You can verify my license and disciplinary history on the Virginia State Bar’s public attorney records at any time. Read more about me.

Who I represent

I take Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims across the Commonwealth of Virginia, at every stage. You and I may be a good fit if you:

• Are applying for the first time, and want the disability application done right
• Received a denial at the initial level
• Received a rejection of your request for reconsideration
• Have a hearing before an administrative law judge coming up
• Received an unfavorable decision after your disability hearing and want to appeal
• Are a parent seeking SSI benefits for a disabled child
• Are an adult disabled before age 22 seeking benefits on a parent’s earnings record
• Have an award of benefits, but received a letter stating your benefits are under review

Your diagnosis matters less than the limits it puts on you, which differs from the frequent causation disputes in workers’ comp cases, and Social Security fights a different battle for every condition.

Offices in Richmond and Hampton Roads. Clients throughout Virginia.

What it costs

Nothing up front. Nothing hourly. No attorney’s fee unless I win.

Federal law sets the attorney’s fee in Social Security disability cases as a percentage of your past-due benefits, capped by statute, and the fee must be approved by the Social Security Administration before I am paid.

You do not pay a fee from your monthly benefit check.

You may be responsible for case costs, such as the charges providers impose for copies of your medical records.

That is the whole arrangement — no fine print.

Deadlines do not wait

You have sixty days to appeal a denial. Social Security assumes you received its letter five days after the date printed on it, so the clock usually starts from that date. Miss the deadline, and in most cases, you start over from the beginning — and you may lose months or years of past-due benefits in the process.

If your letter is more than sixty days old, call anyway. Sometimes there is a good cause for a late appeal. Sometimes there is a better move than an appeal.

If a letter from Social Security is sitting on your kitchen table, call today: (804) 251-1620.

Before you call

Do I have to hire a Virginia disability lawyer? No. You can represent yourself. And though I am biased and think everyone should hire an SSD attorney, the data show that claimants with legal representation have higher approval rates than those without, especially at the hearing level. Draw your own conclusion.

Is my case too small, or too far along? I take cases at every stage, including cases other lawyers have turned down and cases already denied by a judge. Call and let me look.

How long will this take? An initial decision often takes three to five months. A full appeal through a hearing can take a year or more. I cannot make the government faster. But I can make sure that when your turn comes, your file is ready.

Will I lose my right to Social Security disability benefits if I try to work? Not necessarily. There are work incentives built into both the SSDI and SSI programs, and they are easy to get wrong. Talk to me before you take the job, not after.

What if I also have a workers’ compensation claim? Then the two claims must be handled together. The language in a workers’ comp settlement matters. I know how to reduce, and sometimes eliminate, the offset that reduces your Social Security disability benefits.

Free consultation with a Virginia disability lawyer. Straight answers.

Call (804) 251-1620 or send me a message. I will tell you what I think of your case, including when I think you do not need me or any other disability attorney.

You have been told “no” by an agency and examiners who have never met you. Let me make them look again.

Want the full explanation of how disability claims work — eligibility, work credits, the five-step evaluation, appeals, back pay, Medicare, and Medicaid? Read my complete Guide to Social Security Disability Benefits in Virginia.

Case results and disclosures. Every case is different, and the outcome depends on its own facts and the law. The results described on this page do not guarantee, warrant, or predict a similar outcome in your case. The figure “more than $100 million recovered” reflects the total gross settlements, awards, and verdicts obtained for clients over the course of my career across all practice areas, before deducting attorneys’ fees, case costs, liens, and other expenses. “More than 2,000 Social Security disability claims” reflects claims handled at one or more stages of the administrative and judicial review process. This page is attorney advertising. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Corey Pollard Law is the trade name of Jenkins, Block & Associates, P.C. Offices in Richmond and Hampton Roads, Virginia. Responsible attorney: Corey R. Pollard.

About the authorCorey Pollard is a Virginia workers’ compensation and Social Security Disability attorney in Richmond. Best Lawyers in America® (2020–2026), $100M+ recovered, and a former insurance defense lawyer — which is the part that matters.