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.

We are Members of:

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.


    Why I’m proud to be a trial attorney:

    My son is in the Peace Corps serving in a small village in Honduras. He told me the children would greatly appreciate any form of musical instruments as the town is very poor and there is a great interest but no funds to teach music.

    I sent an email to a number of trial attorneys. I suggested they might want to consider sending me any used trumpets they may have at home if their children were grown and no longer used them. I thought trumpets would be easy for me to take and less susceptible to damage in transport. I was thinking perhaps I might get a response or two and be able to take a donated trumpet to Honduras when I leave in January to volunteer with my son.

    A lawyer named Kathryn Johnston responded to my email saying she knew a man who had a music store and might have a few deals. She then suggested donations to other trial attorneys and in 2 business days racked up donations of $3,100.00.

    She didn’t stop there. Actually, that was just the beginning. She drove her daughter and a friend who volunteered his time to help look at the trumpets for sale in Gainesville taking up essentially her entire weekend to make sure they were in good condition. That was last Saturday.

    When I returned to my home Sunday afternoon, there in my living room were eleven beautiful trumpets, cases and all. Some trumpets worth as much as $500.00 each.

    Also awaiting me was a message from Kathryn. It seems she talked the owner of the trumpets down to only $100.00 per trumpet and got him to throw in another one free! I now have $2,100.00 left over to help with customs and to pay for diapers and food for an orphanage in Tegucigalpa where the children are so poor they can only eat 1-2 times per day.

    Kathryn is making arrangements to visit my son in April and bring with her donated wind instruments and music.

    She recently talked people into donating 4,000 toothbrushes to be sent to her mother who is also doing charity work.

    Kathryn Johnston, you are one of the many reasons I am proud to be a trial lawyer.