I'm hearing that Social Security Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) may be issuing a fair number of decisions this week but almost all of these are decisions that had been drafted before the government shutdown but not yet been finalized. Of course, that pipeline will soon run dry.
I'm also hearing that even without staff, ALJs may be able to get out bench decisions. This could be a big help for claimants whose favorable decisions might be delayed because of the government shutdown.
Charles, no decisions are going out from my HO. Judges are signing the decisions that were written before the writers went home but that's as far as they go unless somehow they are being processed somewhere electronically, but I doubt it. There is NO staff available to process decisions in the HOs. We are hearing cases that were scheduled before the shut-down but, again, no one to write or process decisions. We judges have our hands full trying to find newly submitted evidence in the record before hearings and holding hearings with no staff. There is no one to be sure that all electronically submitted evidence is exhibited prior to hearing. To all reps: please do not submit last minute evidence. If you have to do so, please let the judge know about it so the judge can check exhibits.
ReplyDeletei can issue all the bench decisions i want, but no one here to finish the process of mailing and effectuating the decision.
ReplyDeleteI was told that bench decisions would not be effectuated
ReplyDeleteclarification: NO decisions will effectuated as long as the furlough is in place
ReplyDeleteI can issue and sign all the bench decisions I want but there's no one to mail them and send them down the line to the processing center.
ReplyDeleteI'm in an office that has a person closing/mailing the ALJ decisions when she can. As the only support staff here, she is doing a lot, but is getting out as many of the ALJ decisions she can. I don't know if the payment centers are processing them, but we are closing them.
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