PSA: Paid a $75 consult fee to a 'disability lawyer' in Fresno who just handed me a pamphlet
I want to push back on the advice you always see here about doing a paid consult first. Back in March I drove to a office in Fresno and paid $75 up front for 30 minutes with a lawyer who spent 20 of it reading my denial letter out loud to me. She then gave me a stapled pamphlet about appeals and told me to come back when I had $1,500 for the retainer. I looked up the same pamphlet online that night for free on the SSA site. A phone call to Legal Aid would have cost me nothing and probably gotten me the same info. Has anyone actually gotten real help from a paid consult, or is the free route just better for the first step?
Man that sucks, $75 for a pamphlet you could've printed at home is a straight up rip off. I've heard the free route through Legal Aid or even just calling the SSA office can get you pretty far for that first step, so you're not wrong to push back on the pay-first advice. Sorry you had to learn it the hard way, but thanks for the heads up for the rest of us.