Social Security management has a strong lean in the direction of centralizing anything that can be centralized and some that can't. One of the things that they have centralized is the scheduling of Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) hearings. It's called ERAP -- Enhanced Representative Availability Process -- at least insofar as it applies to people like me who represent claimants. I cannot even imagine a sensible reason for ERAP. Let me set out some problems I have encountered with ERAP:
- It's now February. ERAP is demanding that I tell them when I've available for hearings in August! Do you know what your plans are for August? They have just started scheduling for June. I don't know why we need to schedule this far in advance anyway but why do I have to submit my availability well beyond what they need now. How is this helping anyone.
- I have been told verbally that if I fail to meet Social Security's deadline that I am considered available for the entire month even if I tell them well before scheduling actually begins for the month in question. Gotcha! Is there any rational reason for this?
- I have been informed that once I submit my availability that I cannot later change it to say that I am unavailable certain days even though Social Security hasn't started scheduling even for the month before the month we're talking about. Gotcha! Not only must I submit availability six months in advance, I'm not allowed to make changes even if the changes don't inconvenience Social Security in the slightest. Do your plans six months out never change?
- Despite providing dates that I'm available six months in advance, Social Security still schedules hearings on days I've told them I was unavailable and they still schedule two hearings at the same time. As best I can tell, they don't even consult the dates I've given them. The burden is on me to catch this and get it corrected. When this happens there is usually a significant delay in rescheduling a case.
- Attorney who have clients in two of Social Security's regions have impossible problems since those regions can't coordinate scheduling with each other. Somehow we're supposed to solve this problem for the agency.
What are we doing here? This is an unworkable system for attorneys. My guess is that it may not be much better for ALJs.
The old system, which involved hearing offices calling attorneys about each hearing was workable. With all the reschedulings because of errors, I don't know that ERAP actually saves time for the agency. The agency is supposed to be serving the public. ERAP is lousy public service.
17 comments:
ALJs submit hearing schedules 6 months in advance, hearings are scheduled 120 days out. Get used to it.
ALJs can submit schedules 6 mos in advance...great. If something comes up last minute, they have another ALJ handle the case. Reps generally aren't able to do this (especially the solos). The new scheduling has been horrible. I've had numerous cases scheduled well in advance of the times I've indicated I'm available. I've been doubled booked or just as bad - had one case scheduled for 10am with ALJ "Jones" and a 10:30 case scheduled with ALJ "Smith"...good luck not running into an issue there. If there is an issue, good luck getting ahold of anyone that will take your call. Between DDS issues (not processing paperwork), scheduling issues, etc - our office spends a quarter of the day following up or fixing everyone else's mistakes. At least they pay us on time....oh wait, never mind.
There is a growing problem in this business where calling and actually speaking to someone to rationally hash out virtually any issue is to be avoided at all costs! Been doing this for nearly 30 years and things were objectively better and more efficient when you could coordinate availability with the Hearing Offices directly. It wasn't perfect, but it was better.
The other thing they are doing is docketing a virtual hearing (like MS Teams) followed immediately by an in-person followed immediately by another virtual (telephone) and so it's a logistical nightmare. I also have had several instances where the claimant requested a virtual, due to their impairment, but it was docketed in-person and the ALJ refused to honor the claimant's request for changing it to virtual. It'd be so much easier to work with the judge's clerks on the front end rather than cleaning up after ERAP
I cannot understand for the life of me why you guys agreed to this in the first place.
Hopefully the new Commish is savvy enough to read this blog. Here is the inside view from over 25 years of service with SSA. When I started it was all about the claimants. The employee s and the reps were not considered the enemy of management. The motto was "World Class Service" and then sophisticated tracking systems came along and there was literally a big sign in one office that said "Quantity is job one."
Things have steadily deteriorated since then. Computer systems were supposed to be the answer, they have made things much worse. Because everyone is being numerically tracked within an inch of their lives, nothing is getting done correctly. The problem with this Agency is that we never have time to do it right the first time, but we always have time to do it over because that is a trackable event. We have now achieved "third world class service".
It really breaks my heart to see what this Agency has become. The claimants are an afterthought, reps are the enemy and employees are not far behind. No wonder employees are leaving in droves. I will soon be among them.
It's a joke. They've scheduled me for hearings at the same time at different OHO's and treated me like garbage when I called to have one changed. They say ridiculous things like, "can you have someone else cover it?" No, I can't have someone else cover it. Why do we have to provide dates 8 months out if they can't even get it right internally? And heaven forbid something unexpected come up like an unplanned medical procedure for yourself or your child.
I totally agree. By the way, ALJ have just one job. I may be scheduled for depositions or trials in other matters. I cannot just keep my calendar clear, hoping they will schedule SS hearings.
It was so much easier when we were called and scheduled over the phone. PS Judge's assistants told me that the ALJ also preferred the old system.
Yesterday, I had to call my local OHO to postpone four hearings where they sent me notices for hearings at the exact same time I had been scheduled previously by another hearing offie. The problem was that the other hearing office was in Region I and my local office is in Region II. It seems that even when hearings are already scheduled in the other Region, the local office can't see them on my calendar and can only see that I am marked available that day.
When I called, they agreed to postpone as my local office is staffed by reasonable people but what galled me most is that they have known about this issue for several months, had raised the problem to the Regional Office, and nothing at all has been done to rectify the problem.
I did provide the local office with specific availability for either later in the same day or the day before or after the date they wanted but they said they could not just do that under their guidelines and had to clear it with the ALJ or whatever. I would work with them if they called and suggested dates, as we did for years with no problem. But that is not how things work now.
So now I have to advise clients who had waited for a long time for their hearing that they would have to wait even longer through no fault of their own.
Don’t worry…it will be fixed by giving it a new name…CSU…ERAP…What’s next? Sorry, ODAR, OHA, ODD, OHO are already taken!
Brought to you by the same people who brought you the now failed centralized scheduling unit - these people continue to try to come up with stuff they think will make them look good. They should poll agency employees before implementing these whacko ideas. The employees tried to tell them for a decade that centralized scheduling would not work - they continued on to the tune of millions of dollars - same thing with ERAP. Leadership is a joke in OHO. Employees are still wasting untold hours making entries in 2 case tracking systems because the dweebs in OHO rolled one system out before it was ready and now they can’t figure out how to get it consolidated … and then they blame hearing office management if everything is not perfect. O’Malley should clean house.
Just another efffort by SSA to make representing claimants unbearable for representatives.
I thought this was ridiculous. Except with follow-up cancer screening, I can't think of anything you would know that you have that would interfere with a hearing. I liked the old system when someone from OHO would call and we would schedule together.
The idea that we are supposed to know what we are doing 6 months out is a joke. Most of the ALJs I practice before have been decent about resetting hearings when something inevitably comes up that I couldnt have known about (death in the family, a wedding trip, etc).
Multiple times, I have had 2 hearings set for the same exact day and time within the same region. And the ALJ's staff usually waits until the week or day before the hearing to cancel/reschedule the latter one. It's a pain and not fair to the claimants. I am also scheduled for a live hearing in one city, a video hearing immediately after, followed by another live hearing in a different city (30-40 minutes away). Well, obviously I cant do the video hearing while I am driving.
I dont mean to whine. It's our job and we do it. But this system makes it harder.
@9:38 - Yes ALJs set their availability 6 months out too. But if the ALJ has a conflict or something comes up, they can move things around or cancel it without anyone's permission. And ALJs have one area they practice in. I have depositions, trials, mediations, intake meetings with clients, marketing, and office conferences to juggle in addition to my disability practice. It's NOT the same thing.
This is the typical way of SSA handling a problem. They had a firm or two who consistently refused to schedule cases, so they come up with this ridiculous system so ALL firms must to commit to dates. Just like you had a few offices that had trouble getting cases scheduled, so they change the rules for ALL offices. There have been numerous times I have seen my local office told they could not use an effective practice because "no one else is doing it that way." SAA hits everything with a sledgehammer when a more refined tool would do.
SSA would be much better off returning scheduling to local offices, without the suffocating micromanagement.
On the flip side, our office has at least one attorney with multiple cases pending advise that he is only available for hearings one day a month. Total disregard for his clients and the judges.
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