Apr 2, 2019

The 6th Circuit Has Spoken So Let's Put These Claimants Back On Benefits

     From WLEX:
... On Sunday, attorneys filed a pleading in Federal Court seeking class action relief for the more than 800 former clients who lost their Social Security benefits as a result of the largest fraud case in the history of the agency.
The move comes after the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals denied the agency’s request for a rehearing of a November decision.
That decision found the Social Security Administration’s actions were unconstitutional when it tossed all medical records from four doctors associated with Conn’s scheme. As a result, hundreds of former clients lost their benefits.
“We’re hoping that, as of Friday, the Social Security Administration will acknowledge these hearings were unconstitutional and restore the benefits of 800 to 900 people up here,” said Ned Pillersdorf, an attorney who has represented former clients of Conn’s. ...
     It's not completely clear from this article but the class action relief sought at the moment is for the claimants involved to be placed back in payment status.
     My prediction is that Social Security will stall, saying they need more time to consider whether to ask the Supreme Court to hear the case. Ultimately, they won't ask for Supreme Court review because there is no clear reason why the Supreme Court would hear the case but the agency can delay resumption of benefits for these claimants for several months this way. No one at Social Security wants to be responsible for pulling the plug on their Eric Conn debacle. They'll want to let it wait until there's a confirmed Commissioner.

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