Page 84 - Senior Link Magazine Spring 2023 - Online Magazine

SENIOR RESOURCES

RETIRED SOCIAL SECURITY JUDGE

Finds New Life

in
Lubbock

n a cold winter day in Fort disability cases involving a mixture their present job because they have
Worth in 2021, Larry Marcy of legal and medical issues. Social physical and/or mental impairments
Odecided to retire after Security has two programs for those should consult with a lawyer or
working for 25 years as a Federal who are unable to work because of authorized representative who
Administrative Law Judge, having physical or mental impairments. specializes in disability law. They
decided over 10,000 disability cases. Now, as a lawyer representing these help you by doing such services as
He contemplated living a pastoral individuals, Larry has, in effect, attending any interview or hearing
life on his land in the country outside joined the other side, helping others and helping you obtain medical
of Fredericksburg. But after a few get disability benefits by navigating records; obtaining information from
months of tending the sheep and the myriad of regulations in one of your Social Security file; requesting
clearing brush, he realized that he the world's largest bureaucracies, the reconsideration, a hearing, or an
missed the legal profession and Social Security Administration. For Appeals Council review; preparing
decided to start a Social Security instance, one chapter of the Social you for the hearing; and attending
disability practice in his hometown of Security operating manual is 20,000 the hearing before an administrative
Lubbock. He chose Lubbock because pages long. law judge.
of its down-to-earth friendly people,
and frankly, to get away from the Larry pointed out that, although the Having met new friends and being
heavy traffic. disability programs cover people of able to help the disabled, Larry
any age, seniors do not need to have enjoys his new life in Lubbock.
He had left Lubbock at age 22 to as severe an impairment as those “Don’t think retirement has to
attend the University of Houston law under age 50, and that if someone be a mundane life,” he advises.
school. After graduating from Texas is designated as disabled under the Retirement is not the end of a career,
Tech, he packed his belongings in his giant SSDI program, they qualify but rather an opportunity to have an
small Karmann Ghia Volkswagen for Medicare without having to wait even more meaningful life, the joie de
and drove to Houston, a place that until they are 65. Claimants run vie (joy of life).
seemed enormous and frightening. the whole
As he started attending classes, he gamut, from
recalled that a junior high school unskilled
teacher had tried to dissuade him workers to
from contemplating becoming a physicians.
lawyer because “only good, smart Therefore,
students can do that.” Larry proved in general,
him wrong by becoming an Assistant people who
U.S. Attorney and then a Federal believe
Administrative Law Judge. that they
As a judge, he decided complex cannot do

84 Lubbock Senior Link