May 11, 2013

ALJ Positions Popular

     There's a report that there were more than 5,000 applications filed when the government recently took applications for positions as Social Security Administrative Law Judges (ALJs).

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

They should have used the money to hire people to make better decisions at the initial level.

Anonymous said...

The same thing is true for positions as attorneys for SSA.

There were over 4,000 applications for one of those jobs.

I think it's a sign of the lack of work in the private sector for attorneys.

Anonymous said...

While hiring more at the initial level would get more processed, it wouldn't get more applications granted, at that level many applications have little medical evidence.

SSA ought to hire more ALJ's, adjust their production goals according to the size of the files of each office, allow the ALJ's sufficient time to read their files, and make it clear they need to read the entire file. Not all our cases are "winners," but it is frustrating when cases are denied and it's clear the ALJ didn't read the whole file.

Anonymous said...

Agree with 9:01 p.m. From the cases I review at the Appeals Council, it is clear that many ALJ's and decision writers do not read the entire record, resulting in valid claims being denied. I doubt these professionals are inherently incompetent or careless; they are taking short cuts because they are burdened by unrealistic production expectations. FYI the same thing happens at the AC, too (analysts recommending denials en masse because it's easier to write a denial notice than to write a remand order or a favorable decision).

Anonymous said...

$100,000 plus a year, sweet benefits package "work from home" one or two days a week, and you can hardly be fired as long as you go through the motions, dont over deny, dont over approve. Be rude, sure, or smile and deny, either way it is a great paycheck for life.

Dont forget to complain a lot, about decision writers, file prep, Claimants, management, reps, air, water, and how overworked and under paid and appreciated an ALJ is.

Anonymous said...

"I think it's a sign of the lack of work in the private sector for attorneys."

More like we have too many freaking attorneys.

Anonymous said...

For over $100,000 a year, AlJ's should be required to be able to type a minimum of 30 wpm so they can utilize DGS, ebb etc. They use the "judicial independence" card to avoid utilizing the sytems in place which require typing that increase productivity and accuracy. In the 21st century is that really asking to much.

Anonymous said...

$100,000 a year for someone with a law degree and at a minimum 7 years of experience is hardly good money. The economy sucks. Hard to pay back student loans. Way too little for selling your soul and that is what you will be doing. In an attempt to keep up the pace you will lose your integrity and self-respect. Pay someone $100,000 a year to award 10 Billion dollars of lifetime benefits. Yeah, let's go for low dollar. Duhhhh.