When will in-person hearings resume at OHO locations? People grocery shop, Congress convenes and conducts business, staffs continue working at hospitals, people travel, production continues in factories, why is it impossible to resume in-person hearings? Telephone and video remote hearings are vastly inferior to the in-person experience for both judges and applicants. This reluctance to resume in-person hearings is wrong.
Telephone, and now video hearings, are the reality for the for seeable future. To advise clients that there is any imminent change forthcoming places their cases at the end of a queue with no beginning. The circumstances described are not comparable to the close quarters in an OHO hearing room space. Plans for any modifications are not yet in the working pipeline. Hopefully the eventual success with the vaccines will provide some flexibility, but that is shear speculation to an indeterminate future. IMHO doing what we can on a collaborative and cooperative basis with the hand we have been dealt, will better serve those who depend on the process.
To put it in perspective, many offices both governmental and private are closed because covid can travel through the ventilation system. To put thousands of employees, management or rank and file, in danger of catching a deadly virus is not right either. This is in addition to the crowded conditions in most hearing offices. What should be done is to give those cases denied after a phone hearing another opportunity. I am not a fan of video hearings, but unless someone certifies a class action, they are here to stay.
Incorrect. It's well known that practicing social distancing is a key to mitigation of the spread of COVID19. Hearing rooms and OHO hearing offices are also no doubt poorly ventilated. Also, you just can't have different groups of people constantly going in and out of the hearing rooms. They probably aren't cleaned regularly as it is.
I am the starter of this thread. Thank you to those who posted thoughtful responses. This mess is complicated. I am fearful that Social Security will exploit this crisis by eliminating in-person hearings permanently. Disability law has been a significant portion of my practice for 45 years. I have always considered the in-person hearing as indispensable for both judges and clients. My bias might be generational. But, I will never believe that a face on a computer monitor or a voice on a telephone is the equivalent of an in-person hearing.
While originally resistant to the concept, I have now become grateful for telehearings. Not only are we practicing safe social distancing, but we are also allowing the first levels of essential workers to go to their jobs so I can continue to safely do mine.
6 comments:
When will in-person hearings resume at OHO locations? People grocery shop, Congress convenes and conducts business, staffs continue working at hospitals, people travel, production continues in factories, why is it impossible to resume in-person hearings? Telephone and video remote hearings are vastly inferior to the in-person experience for both judges and applicants. This reluctance to resume in-person hearings is wrong.
Telephone, and now video hearings, are the reality for the for seeable future. To advise clients that there is any imminent change forthcoming places their cases at the end of a queue with no beginning. The circumstances described are not comparable to the close quarters in an OHO hearing room space. Plans for any modifications are not yet in the working pipeline. Hopefully the eventual success with the vaccines will provide some flexibility, but that is shear speculation to an indeterminate future. IMHO doing what we can on a collaborative and cooperative basis with the hand we have been dealt, will better serve those who depend on the process.
To put it in perspective, many offices both governmental and private are closed because covid can travel through the ventilation system. To put thousands of employees, management or rank and file, in danger of catching a deadly virus is not right either. This is in addition to the crowded conditions in most hearing offices. What should be done is to give those cases denied after a phone hearing another opportunity. I am not a fan of video hearings, but unless someone certifies a class action, they are here to stay.
Incorrect. It's well known that practicing social distancing is a key to mitigation of the spread of COVID19. Hearing rooms and OHO hearing offices are also no doubt poorly ventilated. Also, you just can't have different groups of people constantly going in and out of the hearing rooms. They probably aren't cleaned regularly as it is.
I am the starter of this thread. Thank you to those who posted thoughtful responses. This mess is complicated. I am fearful that Social Security will exploit this crisis by eliminating in-person hearings permanently. Disability law has been a significant portion of my practice for 45 years. I have always considered the in-person hearing as indispensable for both judges and clients. My bias might be generational. But, I will never believe that a face on a computer monitor or a voice on a telephone is the equivalent of an in-person hearing.
While originally resistant to the concept, I have now become grateful for telehearings. Not only are we practicing safe social distancing, but we are also allowing the first levels of essential workers to go to their jobs so I can continue to safely do mine.
Wishing all a safe, happy 2021.
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