I do not know what this means, perhaps nothing, but Social Security's Hearings, Appeals and Litigation Law Manual, known as HALLEX has not been updated in more than a year. Actually, there was a trivial update in January 2007, but it was so minor that it is not even listed as an update. Perhaps, it is just a sign of a hiatus in policy development with Commissioner Barnhart heading out the door and Commissioner Astrue still trying to get up to speed.
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A goodly part of the reason for this is that ODAR leadership agreed with SSA that ODAR didn't really need a separate "policy" shop. Thus the Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation has been dismantled/dispersed. Now admittedly, individual components (Chief Judge, Appeals Council) are supposed to update their HALLEX sections on their own. But without OPPE to guide the process, it just doesn't happen with any regularity.
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