I was looking at my statistics of cases we handled last year and it appears to me that SSDI claims may be getting slower.  I remember many years ago when I was a young attorney and first started doing Social Security disability cases, and they took two and sometimes three years to go from requesting an SSDI hearing to getting a decision from the judge.  Then things got better and we were going from requesting a hearing to decision in sometimes less than a year.  I fear we are going back to a time when it will take much longer to get a decision.  I am just speaking from my gut right now but I will start to research the numbers to see if my intuition is correct.  Lets hope I am wrong.  In the mean time good luck with your SSDI claims and e-mail or call me if you have any questions or need help.

The VA announced on January 13, 2017 that they will now recognize 8 medical conditions as presumptively service connected due to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune.  If a veteran served a minimum of 30 days between 8/1/53 and 12/31/87 and was diagnosed with Parkinson's, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, multiple myeloma, liver cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, aplastic anemia with other myelodysplastic syndromes, or adult leukemia then the VA will find them presumptively service connected.  This new law on Camp Lejeune will make it easier for veterans to get their VA disability benefits.  This is a step in the right direction, but I don't believe this is the end of this issue nor should it be.  I am aware of many veterans who suffer from these conditions who served just outside the window of time allowed by this new regulation.  I also believe there are still many more medical conditions that need to be added to this list.  One final concern I have is the many sons and daughters of veterans of Camp Lejeune who were born with diseases.  Will this be addressed in the near future?