That's what people tend to believe. Perhaps, there is some truth in that. To do that would actually be illegal. Plus, how do you explain the considerable number of persons, like myself, who do get approved right away?

I really don't consider my own barriers to employment to be among the most serious that the SSA sees on a daily basis. I don't have one of the conditions, like end stage renal failure, that tends to get one approved automatically. I happened to have a very extensive paper trail, due to years of diligently seeking the best treatment I could find. (That included paying for a lot of help out of my pocket during times when I didn't happen to have insurance.) Secondly, I studied hard what the SSA needs to see to approve a claim and was very careful getting that relfected in the paperwork. Some things I delegated to the law firm, like rounding up medical records. Some things I would not trust anyone to do but myself, like filling out that 13 page questionnaire about my job history and daily life.

I knew that most work in the early stages is done, not by attorneys, but by clerks in the office. Somethings I knew I would do better at than would a clerk. Plus, I went to the law firm's website's client portal to check on anything that the clerks did. Then I would correct their work where necessary, which was needed when they did not taken down addresses correctly that I gave them over the phone.

I think most claims get denied due to lay people just not understanding what they need to do. Without some legal advice, I doubt anyone, no matter how educated or how careful, will know really what to do. People, I believe, think they can rely on their doctors to get them through the process. That is not a physician's job, and no doctor is going to make it his, or her, job.

Going about this on your own, IMHO, is like trying to do a complicated tax return without the help of a tax professional. It is a very special, and unusual, person who can cope with that.