The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has started the process of creating a new register from which Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) can be hired. Those who want to apply have only two weeks at the most to submit an application, but the time frame may be much less, since the register will close at the end of the first day upon which a total of 1,250 people have applied.
The question I pose today is "Who is advantaged by such a short time frame to apply?" The answer has to be that the people who are advantaged are those who heard quickly about what OPM had done. That group would include some who have been trying for years to obtain an ALJ position but there cannot be many in that group who keep up with this subject on a near daily basis. The group would also include some attorneys in private practice who represent Social Security claimants and who are interested in becoming ALJs. Many, but not all of them have already heard about the new ALJ register. However, by far, the biggest group who would have learned on Friday about the new ALJ register would have been attorneys employed by Social Security. There can be no doubt that word of what OPM had done rocketed around Social Security on Friday morning and that by noon virtually every attorney employed by the agency who was not taking a long weekend knew that a new ALJ register was being created. Probably, word got around to many attorneys working for other federal agencies, but not like at Social Security, where the vast majority of ALJs work and where most attorneys knew that a new ALJ register was coming.
Thus, I expect that a high percentage of those 1,250 or so people who will be on this new ALJ register will be currently employed by Social Security or will have been involved in representing Social Security claimants. If I am correct, this will mean that Social Security will be hiring ALJs who have a good deal of practical experience and technical knowledge in Social Security. This is a good thing in my view.
The question I pose today is "Who is advantaged by such a short time frame to apply?" The answer has to be that the people who are advantaged are those who heard quickly about what OPM had done. That group would include some who have been trying for years to obtain an ALJ position but there cannot be many in that group who keep up with this subject on a near daily basis. The group would also include some attorneys in private practice who represent Social Security claimants and who are interested in becoming ALJs. Many, but not all of them have already heard about the new ALJ register. However, by far, the biggest group who would have learned on Friday about the new ALJ register would have been attorneys employed by Social Security. There can be no doubt that word of what OPM had done rocketed around Social Security on Friday morning and that by noon virtually every attorney employed by the agency who was not taking a long weekend knew that a new ALJ register was being created. Probably, word got around to many attorneys working for other federal agencies, but not like at Social Security, where the vast majority of ALJs work and where most attorneys knew that a new ALJ register was coming.
Thus, I expect that a high percentage of those 1,250 or so people who will be on this new ALJ register will be currently employed by Social Security or will have been involved in representing Social Security claimants. If I am correct, this will mean that Social Security will be hiring ALJs who have a good deal of practical experience and technical knowledge in Social Security. This is a good thing in my view.
As a SSA attorney, this was exactly my thought. SSA message boards carried the announcement and e-mails went out within the agency. Many attorneys left work to go home and complete the application on friday.
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