The Social Security Administration is publishing final regulations in the Federal Register tomorrow to officially adopt a preponderance of the evidence standard of proof at all levels other than the Appeals Council. Unless there is some deep purpose that I cannot understand, this is so trivial that I cannot see why Social Security went to the trouble.
Update: And here is the link to the final regulations as posted in the Federal Register. By the way, I have gotten a number of messages about this saying that, yes, this should be so obvious that no regulation is needed, but that there are enough confused Administrative Law Judges that this regulation really is needed.
Update: And here is the link to the final regulations as posted in the Federal Register. By the way, I have gotten a number of messages about this saying that, yes, this should be so obvious that no regulation is needed, but that there are enough confused Administrative Law Judges that this regulation really is needed.
Agreed; it's elementary, my dear Watson. But you'd be surprised (perhaps) by the number of ALJs who conflate the concepts of preponderance of the evidence and substantial evidence. And the rest of the agency is even more clueless. So this may be a reg that's focused internally, more than externally.
ReplyDeleteI'm pleased to see it in writing. There are ALJ's who use a standard of disability of `beyond a resasonable doubt' or even `absolute certainty.' Not stated as such, but that's where they are coming from.
ReplyDelete