Los Angeles Disability Law Services
Mayberry Law's disability practice covers Social Security disability from first application through appeal: SSDI claims, SSI claims, denials and hearings, concurrent claims, and the places disability law collides with workers' compensation, injury settlements, and California State Disability Insurance. Based in Culver City, serving all of Los Angeles County and California. No fee unless you win.
What we handle
SSDI Claims
SSDI provides disability benefits based on your work history. We handle applications, denials, hearings, and appeals.
Read moreSSI Claims
SSI provides need-based benefits with no work-history requirement. That includes claims for children and concurrent SSDI/SSI claims.
Read moreDenials & Hearings
Roughly two-thirds of initial applications are denied nationally. The hearing stage is where prepared claims win, and it's the core of our practice.
Read moreDisability + Injury Overlap
A serious injury can create both an injury claim and a disability claim. Because we practice both, nothing falls between the two.
Read moreYou might qualify for substantial monthly benefits
Answer a few questions to assess the strength of your claim.
Takes about two minutes. No commitment. Informational only — not legal advice or a decision by Social Security.
The path to benefits, start to finish
- 1
Free case evaluation
We assess both programs, your work credits, your medical record, and any deadlines already running — before anything is filed. Schedule your free case evaluation.
- 2
Application
Filed complete and correct the first time. SSA reported an average initial disability-claim processing time of 193 days in February 2026 (Source: SSA testimony, March 25, 2026) — a file that comes back for missing information takes longer.
- 3
Evidence development
We work with your doctors to get opinion evidence that answers the functional questions SSA actually asks.
- 4
Reconsideration, then hearing, if denied
Most initial applications are denied — nationally, only about 36% were approved at the first stage in fiscal year 2025. The hearing before an administrative law judge is where prepared claims have the best odds in the entire process.
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Decision and back pay
Approval includes past-due benefits reaching back toward your filing date — often the largest single check a claimant receives.
How California handles your claim
Social Security is federal law, but your claim is decided locally. Initial applications and reconsiderations are reviewed by examiners at California's Disability Determination Services; hearings are held before administrative law judges at SSA hearing offices — California has 16 of them, more than any other state, including the Downtown Los Angeles and West Los Angeles offices that serve most of our clients. A local firm knows these offices, appears before these judges, and can sit across a table from you when it matters. We meet clients at our Culver City office, by video, or by phone, and represent claimants throughout California.
Faster paths for the most serious conditions
Not every claim waits in the general line. SSA's Compassionate Allowances program covers roughly 300 conditions — including many cancers, ALS, and other severe diagnoses — where the diagnosis itself effectively establishes disability, with a decision targeted within days once the medical evidence is in. Terminal-illness cases are also flagged for expedited handling. If your condition may qualify, getting the right records to SSA quickly matters more than anything else — tell us your diagnosis at the first call. (Source: ssa.gov/compassionateallowances.)
When disability overlaps your other benefits
Disability benefits rarely arrive alone. Most of our clients are also dealing with at least one of these — and the interactions are where money is won or lost.
Workers' compensation
Federal law caps combined SSDI and workers' comp at 80% of your pre-disability earnings, and SSA converts even lump-sum settlements into monthly equivalents for that math. California adds a twist: it is one of a minority of 'reverse offset' states, where in some circumstances the workers' comp benefit — not the SSDI check — absorbs the reduction, and which check gets cut can turn on how your workers' comp award is classified. How a settlement is drafted can permanently change what you keep. If you have both claims, the two lawyers need to be talking to each other — or be the same firm. (Sources: 42 U.S.C. § 424a; SSA POMS DI 52105.001.)
California State Disability Insurance (SDI)
SDI is the state's short-term program through the EDD — in 2026 it pays 70–90% of wages up to $1,765 per week, for a maximum of 52 weeks. It is not SSDI, and receiving it doesn't affect your SSDI eligibility. But the clock matters: SDI ends at a year, and SSDI claims take time. If your condition looks like it will outlast your SDI, the right time to start the SSDI claim is usually well before the SDI runs out. (Source: EDD, edd.ca.gov.)
Personal injury settlements
An injury settlement doesn't reduce SSDI — but it can end SSI, because SSI has a $2,000 resource limit. The timing and structure of a settlement (including tools like special needs trusts) can preserve eligibility. Because we handle both injury and disability cases, we watch for this collision before it happens.
Long-term disability insurance
Most private LTD policies require you to apply for SSDI and reduce their payments by what SSA awards. If your LTD carrier is pressing you to file, that's normal — but the SSDI claim deserves the same care as if the insurer weren't involved, because it usually outlives the policy.
After you're approved
Winning isn't always the end of the story, and we tell clients three things at approval. First, SSA re-reviews most cases every three to seven years in a continuing disability review — keep treating and keep records. Second, report changes: returning to work, workers' comp status changes, and (for SSI) income or household changes all affect benefits, and unreported changes are how overpayment notices happen. Third, working again is possible without instantly losing benefits — SSA's trial work period lets you test your ability to work (in 2026, months over $1,210 in earnings count toward the trial period) while your benefits continue. If you receive an overpayment notice or a review letter, don't ignore it and don't panic — both can be contested, and deadlines apply.