Social Security Law

Because social security disputes rest on a period of working life left behind years earlier, they are usually a question of records rather than documents. Employment that does not appear in the institution's records can afterwards be established only through indirect evidence from that period.

Establishing service is a matter of proving the past

Establishing uninsured or under-declared employment rests on the workplace records of the time, the accounts of witnesses who worked in the same period and, where they exist, bank movements relating to wage payments. As time passes all of this evidence weakens, so when the claim is brought bears directly on the outcome.

Workplace accident files run along two tracks

Where there has been a workplace accident or occupational disease, the payments made by the institution and the compensation that may be sought from the employer rest on different calculations. The institution's payment is determined by the degree of permanent incapacity, whereas a claim against the employer is assessed by reference to the apportionment of fault together with the actual loss. The institution's recourse claim against the employer runs separately as a third file.

The principal matters we handle in this field:

• Actions to establish service and periods of insured employment
• Disputes concerning retirement conditions and the award of pensions
• Claims arising from workplace accidents and occupational disease
• Objections to the assessed degree of permanent incapacity
• Applications against institutional decisions

Because the compensation calculation in these files rests on the degree of incapacity, where that degree is to be challenged the basis of the medical board report is examined first.