CUSTOMER STORIES
Client Snapshot
Firm Name
The Disability Champions
Location
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Case Load
3,000 active cases (up from 900 in 2021)
Firm Size
2 attorneys, 10 in-office staff, 10 remote staff
"When I took over the firm, we had 900 active cases, we're now up to 3,000 active cases. We’ve eliminated three positions primarily due to improvements in technology…Chronicle is a two-thirds contributor to that staff savings."
Al Frevola, CEO & Lead Attorney
The Challenge
When Al Frevola took over The Disability Champions in 2021, he inherited a legacy operation that relied heavily on paper mail and manual processes. Despite his deep knowledge of legal systems and technology, he found the firm was running into hard limits.
“We were a paper-mail driven firm, trying to manage a huge volume of incoming mail. We had to scan everything manually, then distribute it to case managers to process—calendaring deadlines, tasks, and more.”
Al and his son John, the firm's COO, had implemented a basic mail-scanning automation using rudimentary recognition software and their CMS. But even their homegrown optimizations couldn’t resolve the underlying issues:
Laggy ERE access (case-by-case manual queries)
Delayed notices and missed decisions
Inability to track case progress in real time
"Unless we were going to access the ERE on a case-by-case basis directly with the Social Security site, the CMS we had had some ability to access the ERE, but it was time delayed.
You'd click a button to request access, then wait for it to come into the system. There was no live way to access the ERE."
This delay impacted everything from appeal deadlines to client communication. Staff spent 80–90 hours per week doing administrative tasks that technology should have been able to do.
"We were wasting 80 to 90 man hours a week doing things a machine should handle."
The Tipping Point
Al wasn’t actively shopping for a new platform when Chronicle entered the picture. What grabbed his attention? A cold email from Chronicle’s founder, Nikhil.
"I recall hearing about Chronicle by a cold email from Nikhil and thought—if what he's saying is true, I want to know more."
After a call with Chronicle’s founder, Al saw something different. Chronicle wasn’t just another CMS, it was a real-time infrastructure layer for Social Security cases.
“Most CMS tools are built for general legal work. SSA is so specialized that customizing an off-the-shelf system just wasn’t worth the time.”
Why Chronicle: From Pain to Progress
Chronicle wasn’t a replacement for their CMS; rather, it was an extension of their infrastructure. Al’s team began using it daily to:
Monitor case status live
Track decision outcomes instantly
Centralize key client and case data
“Chronicle gives us a right up front: case type, DLI, AOD, application date, and the client’s age at those milestones. That alone made things much easier for our case managers.”
Their case managers and medical record specialists now run every case using both Chronicle and their CMS side by side.
“
“All our case managers and medical records staff use Chronicle daily. It’s part of the workflow from start to finish. Any time they’re looking at a case, they have both our CMS and Chronicle open so they’re not fumbling with the inefficiencies of the ERE.”
Transformation & Results
3.3X growth
75%+ drop
With Chronicle’s real-time dashboards and alerts, the team:
Cuts out delays: Decisions and case closures are visible within 24 hours.
Acts early: CMS triggers now activate based on Chronicle data.
Improves communication: Key data from Chronicle is now standard in all case evaluations.
"We are getting an advance notice before we ever see a piece of mail or an actual decision. The time we spend trying to find out what happened in the case is eliminated significantly.
With the SSA adding the A and B section to the ERE at the pre-hearing stages, we know decisions literally within 24 hours."
Chronicle relieved the operational pressure that once consumed staff attention and energy.
It's rare we miss a decision or deadline now. The amount of stress, extra work, missed deadlines, and scrambling has decreased significantly."
The efficiency gains translated into serious operational leverage:
Freed up the equivalent of 3 full-time staff
Slowed hiring rate even while caseload tripled
Enabled growth from 900 to 3,000+ active cases without bottlenecks
75%+ decrease in weekly time spent on admin tasks
“
"We’ve eliminated three positions primarily due to improvements in technology…Chronicle is a two-thirds contributor to that staff savings."
"We could probably onboard even more cases without having to increase our staff at all."
The Takeaway
Al didn’t need another tool. He needed a system he could build on and a foundation for growth. Chronicle delivered exactly that: real-time visibility, scalable workflows, and operational clarity.
"Whenever I talk to a team member about an issue they're having on a case, the first place we go is Chronicle. It's changed the way people think about their cases. It's a very good tool to reinforce what's important about a case."
Chronicle became their lens for understanding every case at a glance.
"It's a better ERE system for getting real-time data about your case in a very usable way without having to deal with anything other than a web interface."
To other ops-minded attorneys still relying on manual checks:
"With the affordability and ease of Chronicle, if you’re not using it or something like it, you’re in the stone ages."
Join the Firms Saving Hours Every Week
See how Chronicle can help your firm reclaim time and peace of mind.
