Summary
Bross Frankel, PA handles attorney referrals for our colleagues in Social Security, Veterans Benefits and individual and group (ERISA) Long-term disability insurance claims. The firm maintains contact with referring firms and offers referral fees on all referred cases with a certified civil trial attorney on staff.
At Bross Frankel, PA, a majority of our clients come to us from our prior clients, other attorneys and even Social Security and Department of Veterans Affairs employees and adversaries.
We take our referrals personally. When you refer a case to us, you deal directly with a partner available to you to make sure your referral is treated with the same personal care they’d receive if you were handling the case yourself.
Thanks to our team’s hard work we have recovered over one billion dollars in total benefits for our clients in Social Security, veterans benefits and long-term disability insurance / ERISA matters. Because one of our partners is a Certified Civil Trial attorney in New Jersey, we offer referral fees on all of our cases referred by licensed attorneys. We also regularly work with attorneys as local counsel and in assisting in Federal appeals. Some of what we do :
Social Security Claims
We handle Social Security disability and Supplemental Security Income cases from application up through Federal Court appeals as needed. Social Security generally limits the fees that may be charged to the lesser of 25% of past-due benefits or a fee cap assigned by the Commissioner of Social Security annually (this fee cap was $6,000 from 2007 to 2024, and has recently been increased to $9,200 in 2025). While individual fees are usually modest, our winning track record makes us more likely to deliver results. In cases that proceed beyond an initial Administrative Law Judge hearing or continue to Federal Court, our fee is up to 25% of all past-due benefits without a fee cap, making these cases especially important to identify in your practice.
Social Security Federal Appeals
In addition to handling Social Security cases from inception, we accept Federal Appeals from other Social Security attorneys. For cases in New Jersey or Eastern PA we can simply take over at the District Court level. For cases in other areas, we offer brief writing for local attorneys. If you have a claim you feel warrants that extra step – reach out to us and we’ll discuss.
Veterans’ Service-Connected Compensation Cases
Our focus on veterans benefits includes establishing and maximizing benefits for injuries and illnesses that began or are related to a veteran’s active duty service. Veterans can seek compensation for any conditions that began or were aggravated during active duty service. A veteran does not have to show that the condition occurred in the line of duty, as long as there is a nexus to some event or onset during their period of active duty. If successful, depending on the severity the VA will assign a rating for each condition and combine those ratings for a total compensation amount between 0% and 100% with compensation increasing as the overall percentage increases.
While attorneys are legally allowed to charge a wide range of fees, like Social Security, the VA follows legislation that allows them to withhold and directly pay a fee of 20% of retroactive benefits on a successful claim. The VA only permits these fees after an initial decision has been made, limiting the ability to earn fees to cases requiring work after an initial application. However, because the VA often gets it wrong, and because we see the value in helping veterans from the start, we may take a referred case for an initial application even if it won’t generate a fee.
Long-term Disability Insurance
Our firm has long been one of the few regional firms with a strong reputation in Individual Disability Insurance (IDI) and group long-term disability insurance claims governed under ERISA. These claims can be uniquely challenging, and often interact with other matters you might already be handling, as many of these policies contain offset and subrogation provisions, pre-existing condition clauses, and other “gotchas” that can interplay with other benefits being pursued.
The most important thing to know, especially in ERISA policies, is that if a claim is denied, the claimant only has 180 days to appeal that decision. The insurance company will try to get them to appeal quickly and without a full file review or the submission of additional evidence, but this is often a trap. If the claim is denied on appeal and an appeal to federal court is needed, the record is sealed, and in many cases a court will only find in the claimant’s favor if it determines the insurance company acted irrationally, under an “abuse of discretion,” or “arbitrary and capricious” standard. Proving that standard without an overwhelming administrative appeal that fully rebuts the insurance company’s decision can be impossible. This is sometimes a challenge to explain to clients, but our experience drives our ability to work quickly within that 6 month window to make the strongest case for an irrational insurance company possible.
In all of our core practice areas we offer referral fees and remain available on concurrent cases to keep you informed and as engaged as you want to be in the case.
What do we need when referring a case?
When sending us a client, if you are already representing the client in a related matter, please tell us as much as you can about the claim. If you would like to make the introduction directly then please don’t send us contact information right away. If the client is someone who contacted your office for help on this matter and it is not in your wheelhouse, you can send it directly to us for an initial evaluation. We will do a full consultation with anyone in our core practice areas, so if you don’t know much more than it’s a case outside what you do, don’t worry about doing a full consultation, though you can forward whatever information you had.
We always find it’s helpful if a potential client knows who we are and that you shared their contact information with us. If you haven’t done so or are not making the introduction, let us know so we can introduce ourselves. If it’s convenient you can use the form below to get in touch with us. This form will be marked as a referral so that our team will know to get your outreach directly to an attorney who will reach out to you with an update.