Nancy Shor has been Executive Director of the National Organization of Social Security Claimants Representatives (NOSSCR) since 1979. Ms. Shor spoke this past Friday at a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) conference put on by the North Carolina Association for Justice (NCAJ). Below are a few items that I gleaned from her remarks, with one interjection from me in brackets. Could someone explain to me how the last item below could possibly be achieved?
- In January 2010 Social Security will be distributing 1099s to attorneys and others who have received direct payment from Social Security in 2009 of fees for representing Social Security claimants. There will be one 1099 for each individual who received at least one fee totaling $600 or more and another 1099 for each firm for which such an individual worked. Each 1099, however, will list each individual payment of a fee.
- Social Security has no advice for attorneys who receive 1099s containing mistakes other than to call the agency's 800 number or one of its field offices. Ms. Shor suggested that this sounded inadequate to her.
- Ms. Shor thinks that all those who represent Social Security claimants will have full access to Social Security's computer records on their clients within something like six months, although it sounded like she would not be amazed if this date slipped a bit.
- Ms. Shor is hopeful that withholding of fees for representing Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claimants as well as withholding of fees for certain non-attorney representatives will soon become permanent.
- David Foster, head of Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR), has told Ms. Shor that it has been noticed that there are an unusually high number of objections to video hearings when certain Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) are to preside. Social Security is considering withholding the name of the ALJ with which a video hearing is being scheduled in order to prevent forum shopping. [What do attorneys do as a counter-move? Does Social Security want that?]
- The public has until February 15, 2010 to comment upon the recent report of the Occupational Information Development Advisory Panel (OIDAP) of which Ms. Shor is a member. Ms. Shor recommended that the attendees read the report and file comments upon it.
- Ms. Shor has been told that claimants filing a request for a hearing today will receive a hearing within 275 days, but this may happen at the expense of claimants who already have pending requests for hearings.
3 comments:
Ummm, a countermove. If you want to know the name of the judge, then you are using the objection to video hearings to judge shop. Why should you get an alternative?
a couple comments-
there is apparently one judge in particular at the Falls Church NHC that reps are automatically refusing and we know anything that reflects poorly on the NHC's cannot be tolerated by OCALJ.
Hearing decisions are now routinely done within 6-9 months in our office compared to 2+ years not that long ago. amazing what happens when you double the number of judges and hire sufficient staff to support them. local attorneys are actually starting to talk about having to layoff staff because its been a long time since they have seen full fee checks in most cases.
Re anon 2--yes, that is one of those ironic unforeseen consequences--if the backlogs get reduced, attorney reps will get less money, because there will be less retro money payable. Are the big firms who make a lot of money all that outspoken about how bad the backlogs are?
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