Determining Case Viability – Client Interview

Case viability is extremely important.  The higher the viability the greater your chance of winning the case.  Viability can and should be determined as early in a case as possible.  We suggest this evaluation begin during the initial client interview.

There are of course many ways to interview a Social Security disability applicant seeking representation.  We’ve identified several techniques that have proven to bring greater efficiency to the initial interview process.

Scenario:  Phone rings and client needs help with his Social Security disability claim.  Where do you begin?  We begin with a Lazar focus on the primary objective of the interview, to accept or reject the case.  This decision is based on the viability or win-ability of the case.

Clear Interview Objective

Years of case processing experience has taught us that by executing an interview with the clear objective to determine viability, leads to better case acceptance decisions.  Accepting weak cases is an important reason why some advocates fail.

Client’s Contact Data

Avoid the possible inconvenience of a client disconnect by extracting a client’s contact data early in the interview process.  Contact data includes name, address, phone, email, etc.

Client’s First Tier Data

First tier data would include a client’s date of birth, primary job title, citizenship status and possibly the client’s social security number.  Please do not be discouraged if the client refuses to give his SS number on the initial contact.  Simply move on to the next set of required data and return to this element later in the interview if required.

Identify Case Dis-qualifiers

A case dis qualifiers is any factor that can help you determine the viability of a case.  Viability is defined as the level of case winnable.  Anything that interferes with your ability to win is considered a case dis-qualifier.  Some of these factors are:

Client is currently on benefits?
Client is still working?
Client already has a representative?
Client was incarcerated when impairment occurred?
Client received his disability while committing a crime?
The primary impairment involves drugs & alcohol

These and several other dis-qualifiers will quickly enable you to accept or reject a case without wasting valuable time.  If you’re unaware of these dis-qualifiers, we cover a host of them in our advocate training program.  We have also built these case dis-qualifiers into our Olivia case management software.  When performing an interview, Olivia will automatically alert you when one or more of these disqualifying factors exist.

If you’d like to learn more about our unique business focused approach to advocate training, visit our website at www.ssahelp.com.  If you’d like to learn more about our exclusive Olivia Prime case processing software, visit us at www.oliviasoftware.com.