Sonny Banks and co-host Joe Dougherty are joined by guest disability lawyer Mike Silver of Silver & Silver, Attorneys at Law.
The Sonny Banks show is sponsored by Tony Schuler of Pinnacle Medical Plus.
Mike Silver is a 1972 honors graduate of Temple University and 1975 graduate of Rutgers Law School who has practiced disability and negligence law for over 40 years. He served a judicial clerkship with the Honorable Michael Patrick King, an Appellate Division Judge in the Superior Court of New Jersey.
Following his association with a labor and negligence law firm in South Jersey, Mr. Silver and his wife founded Silver & Silver in 1981. Mike was one of the first attorneys in the nation to concentrate his practice in disability law. After serving as the National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives (NOSSCR) Regional Representative for the Third Circuit, as well as National Secretary and Treasurer, in 1990 Mike was elected President of the 4,300-member group. In addition to lecturing on disability law to the medical, legal, and insurance communities, Mike has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Social Security Subcommittee, advocating for ways to make the disability system more equitable. Mr. Silver also founded and chaired the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Disability Law Committee from its inception in 1995 through 2004.
One of Mike’s proudest accomplishments was helping to enact legislation in the PA legislature to provide disabled individuals access to their medical records for a modest cost. Prior to this legislation, record copying costs by medical providers were unregulated, often charging disabled individuals hundreds of dollars for duplication of hospital and physician records necessary to prove their disabling conditions before the Social Security Administration. After a three year battle to get the law passed, it required that all medical providers in PA would be required to release their records for the sum of $18.00 plus postage. In 2021, the cost is less than $30.38, plus the cost of postage. This law has provided disabled individuals access to their records for a price almost all can afford.
After volunteering for the Arthritis Foundation and serving as its first Advocacy Chair, Mr. Silver was elected Chairman of the Arthritis Foundation of Eastern Pennsylvania’s Board of Directors (2002 – 2005) and served as its Advocacy Chair, and Chair of the Jingle Bell Run. Mr. Silver is the immediate Past Chair of the Ardmore Initiative, a Business District Authority. He was selected as Main Line Today Magazine’s Person of the Year (2004) and has served as President of the Ardmore Rotary Club.
Mr. Silver was recognized by Philadelphia Magazine as the only Super Lawyer in the disability field in Southeastern Pennsylvania from 2005 – 2020. Mike is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey State as well as the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States. Mike is also admitted to practice disability law throughout the country.
Halmon L. “Sonny” Banks, III, Esq., is the founder of Banks Law. Mr. Banks has practiced exclusively in the area of Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation since 1985, and is a Certified Workers’ Compensation Specialist as certified by the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Section on Workers’ Compensation Law as authorized by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He is a member of the Pennsylvania State Bar as well as the Third Circuit Court of Appeals of the Federal Bar. Mr. Banks is a member of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Philadelphia Bar Association. He is also the past Chair of the Workers’ Compensation Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. He is also on the Program Planning Committee of the Workers’ Compensation Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. He assists in putting together and presenting programs for the Workers’ Compensation Fall Section Meetings. These seminars are attended by attorneys throughout the state of Pennsylvania who practice in the area of Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation. In 2008, Mr. Banks was awarded the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Workers’ Compensation Section’s Martha J. Hampton Award. That award is presented to the workers’ compensation attorney or judge who best exemplifies a commitment to the profession while maintaining a unique and close relationship with members of the bar and bench, as well as exemplary compassion, dedication and professionalism. Mr. Banks was recently named the Best Lawyers 2014 Philadelphia Workers’ Compensation Law-Claimant’s “Lawyer of the Year.” He is also a member of the Board of Governors of Pennsylvania Association for Justice.
He remains active in both the State and Local Bar Associations in their Workers’ Compensation Sections. Mr. Banks regularly attends continuing legal education seminars on workers’ compensation. He continues to practice on a regular basis before Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Judges and the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board.
Mr. Banks resides in Philadelphia with his wife, Kim, and his three boys, Jake, Griffin, and Mason.