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Jun 26, 2013

Round Up The Lowest Allowing ALJs And Call Them Models?

     Here's the witness list for tomorrow's hearing before the House Oversight Committee, with the reversal rates for each of the Administrative Law Judges in parentheses after their name:

  • The Honorable Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-Oklahoma), Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, United States Senate
  • Glenn E. Sklar, Deputy Commissioner, Disability Adjudication and Review, Social Security Administration
  • The Honorable Larry J. Butler, Administrative Law Judge, Miami Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, Social Security Administration (31%)
  • The Honorable Thomas W. Snook, Administrative Law Judge, Miami Office of Disability Adjudication and Review, Social Security Administration (30%)
  • The Honorable J.E. Sullivan, Administrative Law Judge, Pittsburgh Office of Administrative Law Judges, U.S. Department of Labor (14%)
  • The Honorable Drew A. Swank, Administrative Law Judge, Pittsburgh Office of Administrative Law Judges, U.S. Department of Labor (16%)
  • Thomas D. Sutton, Board of Directors, National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives
     Are these ALJs the committee's majority considers to be models? I don't know any of these ALJs but I wonder whether, after meeting them, the Republican committee members will still consider all of them to be admirable.

11 comments:

  1. ALJ Drew Swank was basically forced out of SSA. He had a 6% fully favorable allowance rate and an overall 12% allowance rate (which includes partially favorable decisions). Of those partially favorables are ones he approved but only as of the date of death. Those really are denials but they go into his allowance column. If you want a good read on how bad an ALJ he was, read Loving v Astrue (EDVA 2012). The District Court blasts him not only for his decision in that case but for his reputation in Richmond ODAR as a horrific ALJ. It is not often that the conservative EDVA scolds a fellow Judge.

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  2. Swank is also the author of at least a couple of nutty articles.

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  3. Spoken like a true claimants' rep.

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  4. Snook, Butler, and Swank? Who came up with this guest list? It's the most disgruntled of the disgruntled. I'm a union member and fully expect to embarassed by all 3.

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  5. Rather than rant about Swank here, have you send the Loving decision to the representatives on the committee so they can call him out when he testifies?

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  6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  7. Will not embarass us nearly as much as Randy Frye does, every time he opens his mouth. See the last Congressional hearing, for example - where the ALJs were blasted for the lawsuit, he was off touring Anapolis.

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  8. You have to consider this: Swank himself has an impairment. Don't know wht it is, but he limps along using a cane.

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  9. You have to consider this: Swank himself has an impairment. Don't know wht it is, but he limps along using a cane.

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  10. Always invite those that agree with your stance, avoids all that meaningful discussion hassle.

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  11. wow, Swank...

    Maybe they called on him thinking (since a half-hearted effort to look into current disability legal research will turn up his odd law review articles) he's the Chemerinsky of disability law, lol.

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