I am hearing varying reports on how much longer that Social Security expects to be offering only telephone hearings to Social Security disability claimants who appeal and ask for a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. I'm sure it will be phone hearings only through June but some hearing offices are telling attorneys that it will only be phone hearings through August. Has there been an official decision, especially one reduced to writing? None of us can say for sure but it looks more than possible that most Social Security employees will be back in their offices before August. No in person hearings even after employees are back at their desks suggests that field offices won't be open to the public either.
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I have heard from both the CSU for my region and from an SCT for an ALJ that we are phone only through "at least August." This information, however, does not seem to have been circulated officially to all OHO staff yet.
OHO staff has been given conflicting information. We got an email about a week ago stating telephone hearings until August. Last Friday, an email came from the Commissioner that current levels of telework will continue "for now." He will notify us before any change is implemented and to "please disregard other sources of information regarding the status of our offices."
Region 7 has started scheduling phone hearings through August
Region V has started scheduling July hearings by telephone.
Region 4 also telling representatives phone hearings through august at least. It’s impossible to maintain social distancing in most of our hearing rooms especially remote sites but also main offices. The hearing rooms are just too small. Even if staff returns in some modified way this summer, don’t expect in person hearings the rest of the fiscal year.
Many offices here in Michigan have rescheduled to July for those hearings I objected to phone hearings on, but I recently received a call from the scheduler indicating that those may be phone hearings at that time as well. He asked if, worst case scenario, we could proceed by phone for those. Told him if I objected to the phone hearing before, I maintain that objection and a hearing 3 months later isn't going to change my objection.
I imagine that with the vulnerable nature of our clients, even if things are opened back up, the SSA should limit in-person hearings even beyond the state's quarantine orders. Unless and until there's an effective treatment or vaccine for COVID-19, our clients are still at risk.
The right thing to do. Seriously sick people should not be exposed if at all possible. Phone hearings are not ideal. But they can work.
Phone hearings can work for right now, but there needs to be a serious plan to take advantage of video calling/conferencing that allows all parties to join from wherever they reside. (home, hospital, jail) There needs to be a real emergency plan and acknowledgement that these types of catastrophic events are forseeable and will continue to occur. While nothing is as good as "in person" SSA needs to catch up the times start allowing video calls/conferencing at all levels. The business world, state governments, courts are doing this without much trouble. SSA VTC hearings a terrible platform and are only site to site. All the major players in this market can give adequate security and allow for recording. Think how much easier it would be for claimants to do initial interviews, work out issues, etc with video appointments at the field office level. These phone hearings are awful.
What would be the point of bringing employees back to the office if the offices aren't opening? It's a bit easier working in the office in that one can mail their own letters rather than relying on mgmt to do that when printed from home. I don't see much of an advantage.
Problem with phone hearings is the ALJs can't see how the claimants walk, nor how they may struggle to move. They can't see how obesity is actually affecting obese claimants. They can't see if claimants are having trouble maintaining their grooming. Many claimant's may sound much more capable of working than they actually appear, and sound more healthy than they actually appear. To quite a degree this is the same problem with video hearings, but at least in video hearings the ALJ can see something of the claimant. In reality seldom is any additional information provided at the hearing that is not already in the record. The main benefit of the hearing is so the ALJs can see with their own eyes how the impairments are actually affecting the claimants. Truth is many ALJs probably give great weight to how healthy the claimant looks, even if they don't put it in the decision.
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