Lawyer's Guide to Working with Special Needs Clients

Persons with disabilities and their family members and caregivers face numerous challenges every day. They need help navigating difficult bureaucracies and developing plans for long-term care and financial security. There are many voices - including an array of financial professionals and attorneys - clamoring for their attention. These clients may find it challenging or impossible to determine who might best help them with their specific problems. For these reasons, attorneys who wish to engage in special needs planning must develop plans that will enable them to connect with those families and individuals.

The special needs planning attorney needs to be an expert attorney, not an expert about every type of disability. That said, an attorney seeking to represent persons with disabilities or their family members will find it helpful to have a general understanding of the disability that the clients have identified before the clients arrive at their office.

This book covers topics from understanding the special needs client, to understanding public benefits, to building a special needs practice.