Case results

Our client survived a medical emergency that led to compartment syndrome, several surgeries, and a lasting foot drop that made walking unpredictable and dangerous. Social Security denied the disability claim twice, first at the initial review, then at reconsideration.

Attorney Bill Demas took the case to a hearing. He built a record connecting the nerve damage, the falls, the pain, and the walker and brace our client now depends on to one plain fact: full-time work wasn’t possible anymore, not physically. The administrative law judge agreed. The decision was fully favorable, dated back to the day our client first became disabled.

Social Security already agreed our client was disabled, but starting in August 2025, meaning nothing earlier would be paid. Attorney Bill Demas didn’t stop there. The medical record told a longer story: a spine injury, a shoulder condition in his dominant arm, diabetic nerve damage, a digestive disease, and PTSD from his military service, all limitations that had existed for years before Social Security’s own start date.

Bill built the case for an earlier onset date in 2021, connecting imaging, mental health records, and the VA’s own finding that our client was permanently and totally disabled. The judge agreed. The decision was fully favorable, backdated to 2021, years of benefits our client was always entitled to, recognized at last.

Our client spent eleven years working the deli counter at the same store before her life changed in an instant: a gunshot wound to her right shoulder, her dominant arm, left her unable to reliably lift, grip, or use it at all after a few days of any activity. The physical injury came with something just as disabling: PTSD, anxiety, and depression that made leaving her house, being around crowds, or simply feeling safe a daily struggle.

She tried to keep working anyway, with her family quietly picking up what her arm no longer could. When she applied for Social Security, the administration denied her claim. Attorney Bill Demas challenged that denial before an administrative law judge, connecting the physical and psychological evidence into one picture. The judge agreed: a fully favorable decision reversing the original denial, paid on both her disability and supplemental income claims.

Our client spent ten years as a remote program manager before landing in the hospital in 2023 with sudden confusion and slurred speech. The diagnosis, Baló concentric sclerosis, a rare and progressive variant of multiple sclerosis, was so unusual that even Social Security’s own reviewing doctor didn’t grasp its significance, and her claim was denied.

Attorney Bill Demas built the record around what her actual treating specialists documented: memory and cognition affected, migraines, falls, and a level of unpredictability that even a flexible remote job couldn’t accommodate. The judge agreed. The decision was fully favorable, and she was awarded disability benefits from the day the crisis began.

Our client served in the Army National Guard. A mortar attack left him with a traumatic brain injury and lasting neck and back damage. Years later, a second brain injury, from a separate violent incident, added skull and facial fractures to the list. Chronic migraines, PTSD, and eventually congestive heart failure followed. Social Security denied the claim anyway.