In January of 1968, in the second season of Star Trek, Captain James T. Kirk invites the mobster Jojo Krako to play a card game of Fizzbin. Krako, who plays a lot of card games, accepts even though he does not know the rules. Kirk deals the cards. Kirk and Spock then begin to turn over the cards of Krako’s hand. His hand reveals face cards (King, Queen, Jack). Krako is excited as he says he has a good hand. Kirk then tells him that in Fizzbin a King is bad, a Queen is bad, and a Jack is bad. In fact, Kirk says, Kirk’s hand of  low cards is the winner and Krako has lost. When I saw the program, it was obvious to me that Kirk was making up the rules as he went. There was no way that Krako could win because he did not know the rules. If you want to purchase the DVD so you can see the whole episode, click here Star Trek DVD

Many claimants go about their Social Security Disability claim in the same manner. They do not know the rules and believe anything that anyone at Social Security says. If someone from the Disability Determination Bureau says that you have to go to an examination by one of their doctors, how do you know any different?

Other times a claimant is like Jojo Krako because something in the process is so familiar that they do not question it–they do  not realize that under the rules of this game, a King is not a good thing to have. A good attorney who has had years of experience dealing with Social Security will be able to tell you the rules and warn you ahead of time about them so that you can make the best presentation of your case.

Do you know all the rules of Social Security Disability? How big of a gambler are you with your case?