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 →