Jim Brown, NOSSCR Lifetime Membership Award Recipient

I have belonged to two state bar organizations, four national ones, and two local associations. None has been as important to me as NOSSCR. Receiving an award for the 45 years I have worked to help Social Security claimants and their representatives is the most meaningful recognition I could have in my career. I want to share my thoughts on the importance of the work which lies ahead for Social Security representatives.

When my first child was born, my father put his arm around me and said, “Your shoulders have to be wider and stronger now because you have someone who is going to stand on them.” I am proud to have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Rudolph Patterson, Cliff Weisberg, Lyle Lieberman, Frank Hanley-the first person of color to serve on our board, Charles Hall, Tom Bush, and Bob Crowe as we led NOSSCR from its infancy to where it is today.

Our accomplishments are numerous, but those of you with years ahead in your practices have a long way to go. You should remember some of the things we achieved on behalf of our clients and our members:

• SS wanted to require a new application if additional conditions needed to be added to the claim. We strongly opposed and finally eliminated that proposal;
• SS wanted to require us to list the grounds for appeal when filing recon or request for hearing and only those cited would be considered. We kept that from being implemented;
• Fee petitions used to be required on every claim. We helped implement direct payment of fees;
• The Reagan Administration was doing CDRs primarily on claimants with mental impairments. We obtained inter-office memos and stopped the practice;
• We got withheld fees on SSI claims;
• The user fee now has a cap;
• We created Social Security CLE programs.

We did more than the few things I have listed above but much is left for you. The most important change this year is changing past relevant work from 15 years to 5 years. It is nice to have the fee cap raised to $9,200 with increases tied to COLA, but that is not enough.

Make your shoulders broader and take these tasks on:

• Do away with the fee cap;
• Get rid of the five-month waiting period;
• Bring back the requirement for greater weight to attending physicians;
• Get rid of the user fee;
• Reduce the 29-month waiting period for Medicare;
• Get retro benefits on SSI;
• EAJA fees for overpayments, CDRs, and fraud cases.

If you do these things the people standing on your shoulders will see a better world for their clients and their practices. Your clients deserve this and so do you!

I have been asked what keeps me going. Thirty-one years ago I was volunteering at a homeless shelter. I saw a woman with six children aged two to ten who just did not look like she belonged in a shelter. I asked what happened that brought her there. She told me her husband worked in the steel mills for 19 years and died suddenly. She could not afford her mortgage and her house was in foreclosure.

I asked about the life insurance and pension he had. She knew nothing about that. She also did not know about Social Security survivor’s benefits. I gave her the name of the HR director at the mill who I knew from my workers’ compensation practice and told her to tell him she needed the money in five days. Four days later she had a $50,000 life insurance check to pay off the mortgage.

Between the pension and SS benefits she started receiving nearly $5,000 per month. Her kids were back in their suburban schools, and she was living a more normal life.

About six months later she and her five-year-old son came to my office with a tray of cookies. Her son said, “Mr. James, I love you.” I replied, “DeQuan, what does I love you mean?” He thought a moment then answered, “It means you make my heart smile.”

Every day since then, both personally and professionally, I have tried to make someone’s heart smile. In my honor now, and someday in my memory, try to make someone’s heart smile every day. The satisfaction it will bring every time you do this will serve you well throughout your life.

This is a guest column. The views expressed in this column are the views of the author alone, and do not represent the views of NOSSCR, NOSSCR’s leadership, or NOSSCR’s staff.