Martin, Jones, & Piemonte - Attorneys at Law

  Charmaine King Smith’s passion with assisting disabled claimants to obtain their Social Security benefits began in 2010. She started working with Martin, Jones, & Piemonte in 2015, and is currently the senior paralegal. Charmaine believes in giving her all and treating each client as if they are a family member. The process of obtaining disability benefits can be long, stressful, frustrating, and very challenging for the entire family so she strives to provide the upmost respect, compassion, and empathy to everyone. Charmaine obtained her paralegal certification in 2003, and recently graduated Magna Cum Laude from Strayer University in 2018 and obtained a degree in Business Administration. She is a member of The National Society of Collegiate Scholars. She lives in Decatur with her husband and son and in her free time, she enjoys spending time with her parents, bowling, reading, watching football, and getting to the beach whenever she can. Martin, Jones, & Piemonte

  Michel Phillips began his legal career in 1985 as a law clerk for a U.S. Magistrate, drafting opinions in Social Security appeals to U.S. District Court. Before joining Martin, Jones, & Piemonte firm in 2009, Michel represented Social Security disability claimants in private practice for 12 years. Michel has also worked as a staff attorney for the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. Michel obtained his law degree from Mercer University School of Law in 1985, and is a three-time champion on the Jeopardy! television show. Martin, Jones, & Piemonte

Obtaining consistent medical treatment is critical to winning a disability claim.  However, it is also important who is providing this consistent treatment.   For mental impairments such as anxiety and depression, it is best that a mental health specialist (e.g., psychiatrist or psychologist) provide that treatment because they are specialists for mental health.  Accordingly, the opinions and reports from mental health specialists will be given more consideration in a disability claim as compared to a primary care doctors. I typically analogize this premise to that of an electrician and plumber.  If someone was going to get an estimate on plumbing work needed, he/she would not seek out an electrician.  And vice versa, one would not seek out a plumber for an estimate on electrical work.  Having said that, mental health treatment from a primary care doctor is better than no treatment.  But to make a more persuasive disability case as discussed above, one should make attempts to obtain tr

Denise Sarnoff was born and raised in Montana and has lived throughout the state. She graduated from Montana State University with a BS in psychology. After graduation, she spent more than two years in Kenya in the Peace Corps, and upon completion of service there attended law school at J. Reuben Clark School of Law at Brigham Young University. She returned to Montana and clerked for a law firm and then a Montana State district court judge. When she left her clerkship, she joined a small law firm specializing in representing claimant’s in Social Security disability hearings. Denise developed cases and represented claimants at hearings for several years, then left to become a Deputy District Attorney prosecuting primarily child sexual assault cases. It was during this period that she met her soon-to-be husband, married and moved to Pennsylvania. She worked with a law firm in the Philadelphia area for eight years back in the SS disability field, again representing claimants at hearings.