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Category Archives for Administrative Law Judges

I Have to Wait How Long for my Hearing Decision?

Back in August, 2007, I wrote a blog post entitled “How Long Do I Have to Wait for my Hearing Decision.”   Back then I reported that in most cases, a claimant would have to wait two to three months for a hearing decision.

Fast forward to 2009.  That two to three month period is now four to six months.  Here’s why:  about 18 months ago, the Social Security Administration convinced Congress to allocate more money to hire new administrative law judges, and SSA immediately hired around 100 new judges.  At the same time, Social Security put into process its conversion from paper files to electronic files and they created the infrastructure to provide for video hearings.

In Atlanta, where I practice, SSA created a video hearing ODAR office in Marietta, Georgia with three hearing rooms available to handle video hearings.

The good news – Social Security is now equipped to offer claimants administrative hearings.  The bad news:  the hearing offices often do not have enough support staff to process all of the decisions being issued by new judges and judges appearing by video. Continue reading →

Will I Win if the Judge Does Not Use a Vocational Witness or Medical Expert?

what are your chances of winning a case at a hearing when there is no voc rehab guy or medical specialist to assist the alj in a decision.
–Lamont

My response: Lamont, I think that yes you can win if the judge does not use a VE or an ME.   Here is how I would analyze:

First, what is the custom in your hearing office?  In Atlanta, where I practice, all but one or two judges regularly use vocational expert witnesses.  There are a couple of judges who almost never use them.   If a judge who always uses a VE hears a case without VE testimony, it most likely means that the issue is fairly clear cut one way or the other.

In the Atlanta hearing offices, judges rarely use medical experts – in my practice I would estimate that ME’s appear about 15% of the time.  The absence of an ME would be of less concern to me here in Atlanta. Continue reading →

Sample On-the-Record Argument Available for Your Review

The first few weeks of 2009 have been extremely busy for me.  I have been appearing at 5 or more hearings just about every week this year.  I am trying to manage my caseload by submitting on-the-record requests in as many cases as I can.

My on-the-record request also serve as a pre-hearing brief for case that is on my calendar.  However, if I can convince the judge to approve my case without requiring me to drive or take the train downtown, my client can avoid the stress of appearing at a hearing and I can save myself several hours of time.

Recently I was schedule to try a case involving a 63 year old woman with documented back issues, diabetes and a neuromuscular disease similar to multiple sclerosis.  She was already receiving early retirement benefits, so the only issue was whether she was entitled to past due benefits from age 59, when she stopped working through age 62, when she began receiving early retirement benefits.

In my view this was a fairly clear cut case and there were several arguments to support our claim.  I set out my arguments in an on-the-record decision and emailed it to the judge, who I knew to be a fair and reasonable person.   A few days after I submitted my request I received an email back advising me that the judge was prepared to grant this claim.

The judge agreed to let me appear telephonically so on the morning of the hearing, the hearing assistant called me and we recorded a 5 minute hearing in which the judge announced his favorable bench decision.   Since I was at home that morning, I “appeared” by telephone while I was sitting in a comfortable chair in my t-shirt and gym shorts.

I redacted the personal information from the case, and published my on-the-record request on one of my Georgia Social Security disability web sites.   Click the link to read my argument.

Lack of Consistency Among Social Security Judges a Problem

“Do I have a good case?”  Inevitably I hear this question from every client I meet.  I hear it again during my pre-hearing conference and I hear it again immediately after the hearing.

If you have been waiting for disability benefits for 2+ years, you don’t care about statistics, about Social Security’s re-engineering, new Judges, processes to eliminate backlogs or anything other than whether you won.  And I would consider you perfectly reasonable to take this stance.

At the end of the day, however, I am not the one who makes the decision in your hearing.  My job is to identify the best argument supporting your claim for disability and to ask you the right questions to present that argument to the judge.  Beyond that, you can only hope that your judge is rational, reasonable and that he takes the time to listen to you. Continue reading →

Hearing report – mental health issues – favorable decision

I tried a case today that was kind of interesting – and the Judge will be issuing a fully favorable decision.  The claimant is a 37 year old woman who has been diagnosed with major depression with psychotic features.

My client had been sexually abused by a family member as a teenager and thereafter began experiencing audio and visual hallucinations (she sees shadows and hears voices).  She has attempted suicide 8 times over the past 10 years.  She has also been hospitalized at psychiatric hospitals five times, including one hospitalization last week.

The claimant’s past work was as a small parts assembler, an inventory control person and as a nurse’s aide. She testified that she would work for a while, but would always feel that her co-workers were “whispering” about her.  She said that a voice in her head would tell her to leave.

The vocational witness testified that if her testimony was deemed credible, that she would not be able to perform any job in the competitive job market because of these distractions and because of the impairment in her concentration.

The medical record in this case was about five inches thick and the judge understood from the outset that this claimant had some significant limitations.  The obvious question in my mind, therefore – why wasn’t the Social Security adjudicator able to approve this case a long time ago.  My client filed for benefits in October, 2002.  Her medical record has been consistent with regard to her mental health issues.  Why is it that she had to wait three and a half years to get a decision?

I also think that what made this case easy for the judge to decide were the numerous work limitations set out in the record.  During our pre-hearing meeting, I practiced with my client to make sure that she described her work issues in terms of minutes and hours and gave specific answers to questions about how often certain distractions occurred.

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