Sims & Stakenborg, P.A.

If you are disabled and unable to work, you might be entitled to Social Security Disability benefits (SSD) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI). It is important that you apply for Social Security Disability as soon as you believe that the disability will prevent you from working for 12 months or more. Unfortunately, the process of making an application is long and may be overwhelming when added to the devastation of being ill and unemployed.

Statistically, people who are represented by a qualified Social Security attorney have a better chance of obtaining the benefits to which they are entitled. Our firm represents individuals who have applied for Social Security Disability benefits and while the SSD team is headed by Ms. Stakenborg, both Dorothy Clay Sims and Elizabeth Stakenborg have a combined total of over 40 years of experience in representing disabled persons and their families.

At Sims & Stakenborg, P.A., we utilize software that provides up-to-date information in medical literature and we access current technology that tells us the effects of combining medications. Our senior partner, Dorothy Clay Sims, has given hundreds of seminars to doctors and lawyers on legal and medical issues. Our law firm maintains a data bank of thousands of research pages on multiple medical and psychiatric conditions as well as expert witnesses.

Should you decide to hire us, a partner will be handling your Social Security Disability case from beginning to end. Questions are welcome at any time, consultations are free and fees are paid only if your case is won. Clients are responsible for costs associated with their claim.

Disability hurts your children, your spouse, your income and your future...

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If you have questions regarding Social Security Disability claims or Supplemental Security Income claims, please email attorney Elizabeth Stakenborg.

Cross Examination of Medical Experts

While practicing worker's compensation law in 1983, Dorothy Clay Sims began to notice an alarming pattern. Defense medical experts were testifying against her clients and their conclusions were strikingly similar. Either her clients were:

  • not injured
  • injured but had been cured, or
  • exaggerating

    • This pattern prompted a change in the focus of her career. She met with psychologists who explained how data could be manipulated. She spent over ten years, nights and weekends, studying the process to learn how defense doctors hid or mislead the evidence. She traveled the nation at her own expense, meeting authors of various psychological tests and interviewing them about examples of how their tests were abused in the wrong hands. She had herself tested with psychological inventories to better understand the process.

    Dorothy has lectured extensively throughout the U.S., Canada, Japan and India on medical/legal issues with focus on direct and cross-examination of medical experts hired by the defense. She is available for:

    Private Consultations for:

  • Analyzing misrepresentations in the defense report
  • Suggesting questions for cross examination
  • Assisting with depositions via Skype
  • Cross examination of doctors for other lawyers throughout the U.S.

    • Private Seminars
    Topics Available:

  • Anatomy of Cross-Examining DME's
  • Cross examination notebook containing questions about the medicine
  • Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury or depression
  • The Myth of Malingering
  • Researching medical articles to support your position
  • How to conduct a background search on the doctor
  • Explain potential misrepresentation of psychological data
  • Using the Internet to reduce overhead and maximize your case

    • If you have questions regarding Cross Examination of Medical Experts or In-House Seminars, please email attorney Dorothy Clay Sims.



    Trumpets for Tegucigalpa


    Dorothy and her sons, John and David, as well as friend Emily New, try out the l0 trumpets they were able to deliver while in Honduras to assist the children of the city in developing a musical skill.



    Sanjuancito, Honduras


    Dorothy and her son, David, at an area between two villages wherein they were successful in getting enough donations to build a park for the children of Sanjuancito, Honduras.