What to Expect from an ALJ at Your Hearing
Social
Security Administrative Law Judges (“ALJs”) are
judges who specialize in deciding Social Security
disability claims. They conduct live hearings, take
testimony, review medical records and other
documents in your file, and make determinations on
whether to grant or deny claims.ALJs are chosen based on their qualifications, test scores, and an oral examination before a government panel. They are not hired for a specified period. Essentially, ALJs can keep working as judges as long as they want to. They do not undergo performance evaluations and they cannot receive bonuses or other incentives for their work. As a result, ALJs are very independent. They are not pressured by the Social Security Administration to award or deny cases. Some ALJs award the great majority of their cases while others award only a small percentage. The majority of ALJs fall somewhere in the middle.
ALJs also differ widely in the way they conduct their disability hearings and make their decisions. In hearings some ALJs will ask very few questions of the claimant while others will ask many questions. Some ALJs will ask aggressive questions, making the claimant feel the ALJ is against them. Others are very friendly, but how the ALJ behaves in the hearing might have no relation to whether they will award or deny the case.
Federal regulations, Social Security Rulings, and the ALJs’ handbook give specific instructions to the ALJs on how to perform their duties. ALJs sometimes depart from these guidelines. Sometimes they do this intentionally and sometimes unintentionally. The independence that Social Security gives its ALJs means that each one does their job differently.
If you are headed to a disability hearing you can expect your lawyer to get you ready for the questions you will likely need to answer in your hearing. Getting ready for your hearing includes covering specific questions related to your case, but also how to best deal with your judge.
To keep reading the June 2014 Newsletter please
click here.
How to
Get More Help
We hope
the information linked to from this page will help you
regardless of where you are in the process. If
you have a question about your disability case that
you don’t find answered in the resources linked to
above, then contact us
here or give us a call at (800) 584-3700.
For more information on our attorneys, please visit Our Attorneys page.
For more information on Social Security Disability, please see:
Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) FAQs
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) FAQs
Social Security Disability Links
Social Security Glossary
