The Association of Administrative Law Judges (AALJ) the labor union, yes, labor union, that represents Social Security's Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) sued Social Security in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois alleging that the agency imposed an illegal quota requiring that the ALJs decide 500-700 cases per year and that this quota infringed upon the ALJs' right to decisional independence. The Court has now dismissed the AALJ lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds, saying that the AALJ would have to exhaust its remedies under the Civil Service Reform Act before proceeding to federal court.
ReplyDeletegeez......is it too much to think that highly paid judges and their association would not have knowledge of administrative law - and how complaints need to be aired?
to say that the unions that represent ALJ's and attorney advisors are useless is too kind of a compliment.
ReplyDeleteThey are staffed with incompetent attorneys.
As a DDS adjudicator who has closed an average of 680 claims per year for the past 20 years, I don't have a lot of sympathy for the ALJs who complain about their workload. The number I have closed is not an unusual number for my agency.
ReplyDeleteanon 12:19,
ReplyDeleteBet you don't have to satisfy the appeals council with your analysis. Bet you don't have to review a case, conduct a hearing with a claimant and a representative. ask questions of a vocational expert, prepare decisional instructions, and edit a 12 to 20 page decision. I'd even be willing to bet you don't deal with step 1 or step 4 issues.
Well, I do all those things and for three of the last six years, I "closed" nearly as many cases as you.
@ 12:19, I don't have any sympathy for the ALJs who moan about have to produce but comparing what you do to decide the number of cases you decide (I know because I have done that job) with what an ALJ does is apples and oranges.
ReplyDeleteNot much sympathy for ALJs being asked to put in a day's work for a day's pay. All this nonsense with lawsuits against quotas is because 1000s of overpaid lawyers wanted to continue to cruise along with no accountability in the easiest jobs they've ever had. A guaranteed $165K a year with no bosses reviewing their work and no clients to satisfy. If ALJs had been doing their job, then the Appeals Council would not have swelled and expanded into its current state of morbid obesity -- feeding off the inferior work done by ALJs at the hearings level. It the ALJs had been doing a great job, there wouldn't be much need for a bloated Appeals Council, quotas, or union lawsuits.
ReplyDeleteWhat an embarrassment. the easiest job in the legal profession and they're SUING because they're being asked to work.
ReplyDelete