Diligence & Determination of Paralegal To Serve Justice
When a client was treated unfairly by the Social Security Administration (SSA), Viena Orridge, a paralegal with Legal Aid, took charge. Determined to address the harm being done to Richard, our client, Viena worked diligently for nearly two years, using SSA’s rules to call out the mishandling of our client’s case and his mistreatment by some SSA representatives.
Richard’s story started after a car accident resulted in his becoming quadriplegic at age 27. Now nearly 50 years old, Richard was employed through SSA’s Ticket to Work program, designed for people who receive Social Security disability benefits but still want to work. Under the program, he was supposed to earn wages that kept him within earning levels that would maintain his disability benefits.
Instead, Richard began receiving notices of overpayment from SSA, but never an explanation of how that happened despite his diligent reporting of the income earned while in the program. Richard also discussed these notices with his SSA caseworker, who led him to believe that no further action was required on his part. Instead, the payments were not recorded properly by SSA and Richard experienced a disruption of his benefits.
Richard applied for help from Legal Aid. We twice requested a copy of his SSA file from the local field office in an attempt to clarify the situation. But certain necessary documents were not released. Only after the appeal reached the administrative hearing level did Richard finally receive his entire file, some six months after the initial hearing.
The file disclosed how unfairly Richard had been treated: he was charged for copies of his file, which under SSA rules should have been provided free of charge, and particularly egregious were notations in the file made by SSA representatives that showed a clear refusal to help him, while also using derogatory language to describe Richard.
We represented Richard at the administrative hearing in late 2023 and received a decision in August 2024, which waived more than $14,000 in overpayments and ordered the SSA field office to provide an accounting to our client to ensure that any withheld benefits were restored. Richard later contacted our office to share that SSA transferred $7,000 in improperly withheld funds to his bank account.
Photo: Viena Orridge, J.D., works as a paralegal in Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas’ Dallas office. In addition to a law degree, Viena is a certified paralegal and has a Master’s degree in Law from the University of Baltimore School of Law.