The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) disposition data recently posted by Social Security shows the total number of cases disposed of during the last quarter of calendar year 2009 by each ALJ. One ALJ in particular, Frederick McGrath of Atlanta, stands out. ALJ McGrath disposed of 867 cases in three months! His nearest competitor for the title of highest producing ALJ is W. Howard O'Bryan, Jr. of Oklahoma City who disposed of 348 cases in that three month period. ALJ O'Bryan's productivity is remarkable. ALJ McGrath's productivity is beyond astonishing.
I notice that Judge McGrath is also listed in Lexington Ky for the same quarter with a smaller caseload. I could speculate that Judge McGrath may have transferred out and there was a cocerted effort to clear his caseload before he left. That may have involved some help from other ALJs and staff attorneys in getting the decisions out.
ReplyDeleteBest thing to happen to SSA in a long time! Good job on making this information public!
ReplyDeleteAt about 22 work days per month... ALJ McGrath's productivity does not astonish me, it frightens me.
ReplyDeleteHow could he actually decide all those cases?
At 8 hours a day, with NO hearings... that'd be about 1.5 hours per case.
It can't be fair to claimants, and it can't be a good use of taxpayer money. There have to be some mispaid cases after less than 1.5 hours of review.
Wonder what his remand rate is like...
Anon #1, I agree with you. He couldn't have done this alone. Good eye.
ReplyDeleteHe is a very good judge. I had several hearings with him when he was helping with the backlog at one of the ODARs where I often have cases.
ReplyDeleteHe works differently than most judges. He wants the rep to present an argument that points out a clear theory of disability and supporting evidence. Most of the questions are directed at the rep instead of the claimant. He said he does that because claimants don't know what he's talking about when he discusses issues such as SGA, PRW, or the med-voc rules.
If you are prepared, know the evidence, and know what he wants, he will approve meritorious cases.
He told me the reason he gets so many cases done is that "This isn't rocket science." And I agree with him.
atlanta ran low on cases. he is travelling to other ofices for hearings now.
ReplyDelete"It can't be fair to claimants, and it can't be a good use of taxpayer money. There have to be some mispaid cases after less than 1.5 hours of review."
ReplyDeleteAlthough all claims should be proper under,law,as a claimant,i say,if any alj think paying a case is unfair to a claimant then there is something wrong at odar!
Of course the representatives think he's great- he pays all those cases. It is impossible to do any kind of a reasonable review and actually judge the merits of the cases doing those kinds of numbers. There is absolutely no way all of those cases are meritorious, puleese.
ReplyDeleteHe is not permanent in Lexington. He came in and was holding 15 hearings for two weeks. He was killing the hearing reporters.
ReplyDeleteStatistics indicate that McGrath does not pay more cases than others. Other statistics which have been made public show that his last quarter of 2009 data are just his typical production. If he handles hearings as described by one comment: Of course it is more efficient to decide a case based upon what the representative says rather than taking evidence from the claimant or someone with first hand knowledge. However, if you are going to do that, why hold hearings at all. Most courts think testimony is useful. I guess you could take the position that there is no reason to let testimnoy interfere with production.
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't use vocational experts, apparently they slow him down. I guess this means he skips step 5 fi there are non exertional impairmnets.
ReplyDelete"This isn't rocket science" Bingo! Now if you could just get more ALJs and SSA attorneys who think they are Melvin Belli to realize this then maybe things would move along.
ReplyDeleteis it possible that the case processing in his office is set up in such a way that while others hear, decide, write decisions in many of these cases, he has the responsibility of taking some final, technical step that somehow "clears" these cases in the transactional system - which then generates a count in the management information we're looking at. I.e., is this a data problem?
ReplyDeleteNo, Judge McGrath actually hears that number of cases himself. And for those who think that this is somehow "good", I don't think the 1 in 3 people he denies thinks so after they wait 2 years for a 10 minute hearing
ReplyDeleteI would like to know if anyone has gone in front of this ALJ and if so what kind of man is he? I been denied twice and i have been fighting for nearly three years. Infact the date of my hearing is scheduled for one week before my three year mark. I would like some info on him that i can understand.
ReplyDeleteI did..he was awful..Kept raising his voice over my lawyer. Literally said that he didn't agree with the 3 doctors who said I had permanent disability
DeleteThis judge is not interested I'm claimants. He's interested in denials. If you appeal his decision, he takes it as a personal attack and he'll take 6 days to deny you again plus he refuses to accept new evidence of your disability!
ReplyDelete