Disability Advocates Group

Focus and practice areas

SSDI and SSI benefits are the whole of what this firm handles. Disability Advocates Group, based in Tarzana, California, represents disabled individuals and their families who apply for Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income. Both programs run through the Social Security Administration. Both turn on whether an applicant meets the federal standard for disability.

The two programs answer different needs. SSDI pays workers who built up a record of Social Security contributions before a medical condition stopped them from earning. SSI pays people with limited income and few resources, whether or not they hold a long work history. In my opinion, keeping both under one roof makes practical sense, because many applicants qualify under one program, the other, or sometimes both.

The federal definition sets a high bar. Social Security looks for a medically determinable impairment that keeps a person from substantial work and that has lasted, or is expected to last, at least twelve months. A short recovery does not meet it. That standard is the same whether a claim runs under SSDI or SSI, which is one reason a single firm can carry both.

People who reach a disability firm often arrive after a health condition has already changed their working life. Some have left a job they held for years. Some are helping a relative who can no longer earn. The firm frames its work around that group and the benefits claims they bring, which sets a clear scope for anyone weighing a first call.

How the firm is led

Michelle J. Shvarts is the Managing Attorney at Disability Advocates Group. She leads the firm's representation of clients across California who seek SSDI and SSI benefits. The site names her as the managing attorney and places the firm's disability work under her direction.

A managing attorney at a firm this size usually carries both case decisions and the running of the office. As a reviewer, I read a single named lead as a useful signal, because it points a client to the person who holds responsibility for the file. Her name is the one the firm attaches to its disability work, on both the home and about pages.

What the claims process involves

Disability Advocates Group takes part at each stage of a claim. The work begins with the initial application and the medical records that support it. If the Social Security Administration denies the claim, the firm files the appeal. If the matter reaches a hearing, the firm represents the client before an Administrative Law Judge. When a denial holds after that hearing, the firm can bring suit in federal court.

Most disability claims meet a denial on the first try. Each step of the process carries its own deadline. Each step asks the applicant to show, with medical evidence, how a condition limits the ability to work. The paperwork and the proof move together, and a missed date can send a claim back to the start.

The evidence itself does much of the work. Treatment notes, test results, and statements from treating doctors build the picture a decision-maker relies on. Social Security weighs a claim through a set sequence: whether the person is working, how severe the condition is, whether it matches a listed impairment, and what work the person can still do. A firm that gathers and organizes the medical file speaks directly to those questions.

The hearing stage often decides the outcome. There, a judge reviews the medical file, hears testimony, and may question a vocational expert about the jobs a person could still perform. A firm that prepares both the record and the testimony ahead of that day helps the client meet the judge with a complete file. The option to continue into federal court means a case can move past an unfavorable hearing.

How the appeal stages line up

Social Security sets a fixed ladder for a denied claim. The first rung is reconsideration, a fresh review by the agency. If that review denies the claim, the applicant can request a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge, the stage where many claims are finally granted. A further denial can go to the Appeals Council, and after that to a United States District Court. Disability Advocates Group states that it handles the initial claim, the appeals, the hearing, and the federal court stage.

Time is the hard part of this ladder. Months can pass between a request and a hearing date, and a claimant often waits while unable to work. A representative keeps the file moving through each deadline and answers the agency's requests along the way. Steady handling counts for a lot when delay is the main hurdle.

Where the firm works

The firm's office is in Tarzana, within the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles. From there it represents clients in Los Angeles, Encino, and Ventura County. The site lists work across greater Southern California, and it names Northern California among the areas it serves.

Social Security claims run on federal rules, so a California firm can represent applicants well beyond its own neighborhood. Hearings tie to Social Security field and hearing offices around the state, and the same federal standard applies at each one. That reach explains how one Tarzana office can serve clients over a wide part of California.

Who the firm represents

The client base is narrow by design. Disability Advocates Group represents disabled individuals and their families as they move through the Social Security system. These are people whose income often depends on a benefits decision, and whose claim rests on documented medical proof.

Families are part of this work too. A disability claim reaches into a household's income, its medical decisions, and its plans. When the firm names disabled individuals and their families as its clients, it points to that wider circle around each claimant.

Work of this kind rewards steady familiarity with one process. A firm that handles disability claims day to day comes to know the review steps, the evidence that carries weight, and the judges who hear these cases. Disability Advocates Group works only in this field, led by Managing Attorney Michelle J. Shvarts, for SSDI and SSI claimants across California.