Ned Pillersdorf, the lead counsel for the class action lawsuit to halt Social Security's attempt to cut off the disability benefits of about 1,500 former clients of Eric Conn, has obtained some numbers on the ongoing Administrative Law Judge hearings in those cases. So far about two-thirds of the hearings have been held. About 49% of the claimants who have had gotten decisions have won. About 57% of those who have an attorney have won.
It's not in Pillersdorf's Facebook posting but the early signs are that the Appeals Council is rushing out denials of review in the cases of those who are denied by ALJs. They're coming out within a month after the request for review.
The United States District Court for the District of Kentucky is about to be hit by an avalanche of cases. The judge who has been sitting on the motion for preliminary injunction may wonder why he didn't take care of these cases en masse instead of one by one.
The United States District Court for the District of Kentucky is about to be hit by an avalanche of cases. The judge who has been sitting on the motion for preliminary injunction may wonder why he didn't take care of these cases en masse instead of one by one.
7 comments:
It's ironic how quickly SSA can process these hearings when the wait for hearings nationally continues to take longer than a year. And the Appeals Council usually doesn't even acknowledge an appeal for a month before they deny review 12 months later. Guess SSA can make up the rule of law as they go along. This is wrong on so many levels. You gotta wonder how the agency players sleep at night.
It's just typical government processing for all agencies. When the powers that be tell you something is a public affairs problem and high profile, all other cases get pushed aside. They will stay pushed aside until these are done, then eventually picked up again. And so it continues till the next crisis.
12:17PM,
Right on the money. Daugherty was approving 1497 out of 1500 cases a year for practically his entire career in the agency. These numbers were public record. Conn was essentially doing what he was doing out in the open, as was Daugherty. Nothing was done until the Wall St. Journal weighed in.
would you say that SSA aided and abetted in the fraud? And if so, shouldn't those responsible have their status reviewed to determine whether they remain eligible for SSA employment? Should they be entitled to the same kind of "due proceeds" that Conn's clients are getting, or more?
Back on 12/29/08, The Oregonian, ran an article about an ALJ who had issued 2,285 favorable decisions in one year. To his credit, then Commissioner Astrue said that issuing that many decision "means the quality of the review is low or nonexistent." Apparently not having checked with his boss, then CALJ Cristaudo said that the agency had reviewed the decisions of high producing judges and found no problems. Regarding the particular judge, he said: "He's putting in incredible hours. He feels very committed to public service." http://www.oregonlive.com/special/index.ssf/2008/12/paying_out_billions_one_judge.html
"Funny" how much faster the government works to take away benefits instead of awarding them!
It's all about pandering to Congress -the hand that feeds them.
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