May 4, 2010

The Sky Is Falling?

Social Security's Chief Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) recently sent out a memo to the agency's ALJs that included a link to a Congressional Research Service piece on ALJs. Apparently, some ALJs are concerned that this means that Social Security is considering replacing ALJs with some other type of adjudicators -- and yes, I have seen more evidence that a fair number of ALJs are concerned about this than a few entries on a webboard.

You can read the piece and judge for yourself. It looks basic and harmless to me. Perhaps what this reveals more than anything is a lack of trust between Social Security and its ALJs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr hall,replacing the aljs would possibly be a step in the right direction or at least by new statutes,administratively control them and reduce their tax payer paid enormous salaries.

Anonymous said...

it isnt that aljs are bad in general. it is the 5-10% who create the vast majority of bad decisions and gum up federal litigation.

i am just astounded that there is no recourse to discipline or remove aljs who have an established pattern of poor reasoning, lack of proficiency in their agency's laws, and release non-sensical decisions that simply rely on templates. independence? please.