Legal Question in Disability Law in California

Re: Terminated

It depends if you are permanently disabled or temporarily disabled. Here are your optons: 1.) If your doctor has taken you out of work and says that you are too disabled to work, you can apply for State Disability. This is a program that can pay disability for up to one year. 2.) If your disability was caused by your work, you may be able to apply for workers' compensation benefits. If your disability has lasted, or is expected to last, more than twelve (12) months you can apply for Social Security Disability Benefits. However, under any of these disability programs, you MUST have a doctor certifying that you are too disabled to work. A doctor has to take you out of work. I am assuming that you are telling me this all happened in 2008. If so, the Social Security will deny because it has not lasted more than 12 months. A doctor may not be able to state with reasonable medical certainty that your condition is exptected to last 12 mos. It is just too early to tell. Nothing prevents you from applying for all of these benefits at the same time. For any of them, you need medical certification. There are strict rules on collecting the same benefits at the same time. You do not want to violate the law and "double dip". If you are temporarily disabled you can collect either State Disability or Workers'

Comp disability (if the company accepts your claim), but not at the same time. Social Security takes several months to receive benefits if you are eligible. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions. My email address is:

[email protected].

or call my office directly. I do not charge for any consultations, below you will find my name and address. Good luck.