Emily K. Cooper

I was looking for SSA representation and everything went great until trying to find a time for my pre-screening. From the way she communicates, it seems she doesn’t understand that disabled people can also be extremely busy. Only contacting people only on Sundays, without even asking about availabl...e time frames is not the way to go. Not only did I tell her two different time frames to contact me (and she didn’t), but then I also applied to five other places over five days and scheduled pre-screenings with three of them, in the week that it took me to even hear from her about POSSIBLY scheduling a time for pre-screening. Even people who had to turn me away were much better at committing and gave me referrals to other agencies. She is not worth your time.

Emily took on my case at the tail end of my first application for the final in-person appeal hearing, which was basically a shoe-in fee for her had I been awarded. When I was denied, Emily refused to help me reapply until I jumped through certain weird medical hoops to satisfy her. This syste...m which I was struggling to navigate and meet all the demands, made my health even worse and drove me into poverty. Failure to secure a decent medical team and lawyer to assist me on the front end caused me to lose necessary credits for SSDI eligibility. I did not continue with Emily. Another attorney (SC) took my case upon referral from one of my doctors, and SC helped me reapply right away so as not to waste more time. I was awarded SSI with another attorney’s help after *7 years* of struggling. SC my new attorney explained what was wrong about the application I submitted UP FRONT and that was very helpful, guided me to answer the loaded questions on the application. Apparently when SSA asks about hobbies, they mean “what are you engaging in now” not what you are interested in and what have you enjoyed in the past. Also one of my doctors prescribed a medicine to me that was destroying my health, he was pressuring me to continue, he refused to listen to me and he wrote some things in the medical record that were extremely unbecoming that the SSA judges pulled out as apart of their denial letter. Emily talked up my case to my face, gave me hope, (presumably to get me as a client bc under SSDI I stood to gain quite a lot in back pay) — and then criticized and spoke patronizingly to me after the loss. I didn’t need to do anything special for SC, my new attorney. SC just helped me. Like Emily could have but chose not to. Avoid Emily.

THERE ARE MUCH BETTER Attorneys for free (pro bono) of same fee or less. Here is my STRONG opinion and break dn. 1. She charges per your income, (u get less than what u paid for. 2 She speaks a good game to hook u 3. she seemed to side with the attorney for the other party's attn. way more than mine.... I thought my attn. was the enemy. She doesn't do what you ask for you own case, TOTALLY UNPREPARED to DEFEND, she was looking more to me for answers, AT the trial. HOW does a "MAN" loose his custody w/o primia facia or "just cause" this was a bad bad terrible defense. But when it was time to pay, she was on it. I do NOT recommend this attn:

I’d like to state up front that I was happy with the result in my case. My divorce only dealt with financial issues — it was a short-term marriage and my ex settled for a considerable sum, so I am not a disgruntled former client who lost custody or had to pay money, etc. That said, my experience with... Ms. Cooper was not good. I found her to be quite unprofessional — she took weeks (yes weeks) to respond to a voice-mail or email or didn’t answer at all. I kept my questions to a minimum in order to keep fees down so she would be hard pressed to claim I was one of those clients who pestered her constantly with questions. I very rarely received any proactive communication, including status updates, which forced me to chase down information and made me feel disconnected from the process. I was a sliding-scale fee client and definitely felt like my case was always on the back burner. It took her 9 MONTHS to draft and file a QDRO so that I could get my settlement money. When I asked about the delay, she blamed it on the opposing attorney. When I asked more details about that and how it affected my fees, I was completely ignored. Like other reviewers have mentioned, she is more diligent about collecting her fees than handling her cases. I paid her a monthly fee for well over a year and was on time every month except for one month I needed one extra day until payday. Ms. Cooper threatened to withdraw from my case. Then at the end, after I thought I was paid up, she sent (via email) a final bill that I didn’t see. Without a follow-up to inquire/remind me about the bill, I received an email threatening to sue me for $84 plus court costs and legal fees. I felt like this was a totally inappropriate way to handle it. I absolutely would not recommend Cooper Law.