Yesterday, I was one of three attorneys who presented a seminar on how to handle Social Security Disability (“SSD”) case for the National Business Institute. One issue that surprised attorneys was the potential for a malpractice claim if they neglected to advise their clients about other potential disability claims they might have.
It may be perfectly clear that a client is seeking an attorney to file an SSD case. Nonetheless, it is quite possible that they client may have claims for other benefits such as workers compensation, short and long term disability, city, state, federal or union disability pension benefits, premium waivers under a group health or life insurance plan and so on. Failure to advise the client about these other potential claims in a prompt manner could result in the loss of these benefits, which in turn could result in a malpractice claim. Therefore, attorneys need to interview clients carefully to ensure that no benefit is overlooked, and clients need to ask attorneys what other potential benefits may exist.
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