I have a question. My attorney’s paralegal called me last week and told me that my attorney and an administrative law judge will meet to discuss my case (without me) in an effort to make a decision quicker. She said that if the law judge ruled in favor of my case, that would be it. She said, if he or she ruled against me we would wait for our hearing as we have been waiting for the past two years. Does this make sense? Have you heard of this? thank you.

–Sheila

Jonathan Ginsberg responds:  Sheila, what you are describing is something called a "pre-hearing conference."   Pre-hearing conferences are a little unusual in Social Security cases, but certainly not improper.  A pre-hearing conference can be requested by a lawyer to speed up the process or it can be requested by the judge.   Sometimes judges will flag certain cases for pre-hearing because they look strong enough to be granted "on-the-record" without the need for a hearing.

In my experience, judges will use a pre-hearing conference to approve a case or to narrow the issues.  For example, the judge may be prepared to approve your case, but he may want to change the onset date for your disability.

Generally, it is good news if the judge wants to hold a pre-hearing conference.  Your lawyer can tell you what happened and hopefully, you will be on the road to an earlier approval.

[tags] pre-hearing conference, administrative law judge, on-the-record decision, Social Security, Social Security disability, SSI [/tags]