Why Hire a Fibromyalgia Disability Attorney?

In a disability case, you need to prove that your disability prevents you from working. Fibromyalgia is one of the leading disability conditions. It’s a somatic functional disorder which can significantly affect your quality of life and the ability to work through heightened and painful response to pressure and chronic pain. After enduring the pain for years, you will often find yourself dealing with anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic fatigue. The cause of fibromyalgia is not yet fully understood but it is associated with central sensitization caused by an increase in sensitivity in the body’s pain sensing nerves. There is no diagnostic test for fibromyalgia, making it one of the most difficult disabilities to prove. However, with an experienced fibromyalgia disability attorney, you can still win your disability claim.

Why is it so Difficult to Win a Fibromyalgia Disability Case?

To win any disability case, you need to produce medical evidence. For conditions that can be diagnosed by your physician, it becomes much easier to prove even without an attorney. You only need to ensure that your doctor has correctly documented the true state of your health. This is not possible with fibromyalgia which is generally categorized by subjective reports of pain, fibro fog and fatigue among others. Additionally, many people living with the condition have manageable symptoms and are able to continue working. The challenge is proving that you are one of the few people who is legitimately disabled by fibromyalgia. Proving that you are disabled in a way that your insurer or CPP disability program cannot deny is further made difficult by their staff who work to protect their best interest at your expense. They will often mischaracterise your medical records, ignore the opinions of your doctors and hire vocational experts and occupational therapists to produce reports stating that you can do light or sedentary work.

Can a Fibromyalgia Disability Attorney Increase your Chances of Winning the Case?

Fibromyalgia disability lawyers are in a better position to win your case because they have gained experience over time and know how to successfully handle the case. Additionally, they fully understand the law and in particular, the implications of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decisions in two fibromyalgia cases of Nova Scotia (Workers Compensation Board) v Martin and Nova Scotia (Workers Compensation Board) v Laseur, [2003] 2 S.C.R. 504, 2003 SCC 54.

In these cases, the court held that “Chronic pain syndrome and related medical conditions have emerged in recent years as one of the most difficult problems facing workers’ compensation schemes in Canada and around the world. There is no authoritative definition of chronic pain. It is, however, generally considered to be pain that persists beyond the normal healing time for the underlying injury or is disproportionate to such injury, and whose existence is not supported by objective findings at the site of the injury under current medical techniques. Despite this lack of objective findings, there is no doubt that chronic pain patients are suffering and in distress, and that the disability they experience is real. While there is at this time no clear explanation for chronic pain, recent work on the nervous system suggests that it may result from pathological changes in the nervous mechanisms that result in pain continuing and non-painful stimuli being perceived as painful. These changes, it is believed, may be precipitated by peripheral events, such as an accident, but may persist well beyond the normal recovery time for the precipitating event.”

This information enables a lawyer to find the errors made by the claims examiner in determining your eligibility and use them to your advantage.

How to Win a Fibromyalgia Disability Case

Even when you have hired an attorney to represent you in your fibromyalgia disability case, you will need to help them to win the case by doing the following.

  1. Documenting your illness. Documenting fibromyalgia involves several steps. A doctor will only conclude that you suffer from the condition by ruling out other possible conditions like rheumatoid arthritis which has similar symptoms. If a general practitioner determines that you suffer from fibromyalgia, you should seek the opinion of a specialist such as a rheumatologist. Specialists have a better experience in diagnosing, treating and documenting fibromyalgia. You should make copies of all your medical records. Make sure that the records clearly document your condition, if not, you should consider seeing another doctor who will document your condition clearly and accurately. You will also need to maintain a diary detailing your fibromyalgia experience. This will demonstrate how the condition disables you.

  2. Retain a Fibromyalgia Disability Attorney. As noted above, engaging a lawyer considerably increases your chances of winning your fibromyalgia disability case. You should not worry about legal fees because many lawyers in Canada will readily act for you on a contingency basis so that you only pay when the case is successful. Once you have gathered all relevant documents and handed them to an experienced attorney, you can relax as the case is in safe hands. The attorney will be contacting you whenever your input is required.