The U.S. Office of Personnel Management is issuing an interim rule suspending the requirement ... that requires incumbent administrative law judges (``ALJs'') to ``possess a professional license to practice law and be authorized to practice law.'' This provision requires ALJs to maintain ``active status,'' (or ``judicial status'' in States that prohibit sitting judges from maintaining ``active status'' to practice law), or to be in ``good standing'' where the licensing authority considers ``good standing'' as having a current license to practice law. ...Comments are due by September 16, 2008.
ALJ applicants are unaffected by this suspension, and the requirement that applicants possess a professional license to practice law and be authorized to practice law continues to apply. ... We have reconsidered comments received during the notice and comment period, however, about the burdens imposed by the active licensure requirement, as it applies to incumbents, the potential differences between the ethical requirements that pertain to an advocate and those requirements that pertain to someone asked to adjudicate cases impartially, and the variations in what States require as to lawyers serving as ALJs. We intend once again to solicit comments on this point in a new rulemaking. In the interim, we seek to prevent any adverse impact on incumbents while we engage in this process by suspending the current requirement as to incumbents.
Send, deliver, or fax written comments to: Ms. Angela Bailey, Deputy Associate Director for Talent and Capacity Policy, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Room 6551, 1900 E Street, NW., Washington, DC 20415-9700; e-mail: employ@opm.gov; fax: (202) 606-2329. Comments may also be sent through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at: http://www.regulations.gov.
SSA is looking for an expert contractor with experience in scheduling cases in a judicial environment. We are interested in an Automated Scheduling tool that may be of value to any part of the SSA’s Intelligent Disability effort, whether it’s a front-end solution, back-end solution, or combination of both. Please provide enough documentation as to how you would address the needs described below to permit an initial assessment.
I set aside a noon hour to call. I should have gotten a sandwich before I dialed.My first electronic encounter was with a menu of options, along with the helpful advice that many questions are answered on the Social Security Web page. I expected that. No way did I think I'd get a human right off.
Several menus later, I was starting to think it was about human time. I answered an electronic voice's questions and then waited for the next available representative. The hold music began, perhaps the most obnoxious music I've ever heard, and that includes some keg-party sing-alongs. Someone pounded a piano, with their fists, maybe, and the product was loud, piercing and without discernable melody or pattern. As a kid, I had an 78-rpm record about a boy who dreamed he had a magic piano that played anything, until he reached Carnegie Hall and the magic ended. He pounded away in frustration until he woke up. His pounding sounded like the Social Security recorded music.Only thing I could figure was they were trying to force me to hang up. Not a chance, not after 25 minutes. (While I cringed at the music, I tried their Web site and found the question section where I learned that for my question, I needed to call the number that had me on hold.)
The human I finally reached was courteous and pleasant. She asked numerous questions that I'd already answered for the recorded voice. She put me on hold - without music, which was a relief - a couple of times while she checked something or other. Finally, 52 minutes into the visit, she gave me a toll-free number for the Internal Revenue Service.
On good days, Michele Saber can get up, get dressed and move around her apartment, but she can't go far. Even on those good days, Saber frequently blacks out four to six times before lunch.
On bad days, the 29-year-old former Bradenton police officer can't get out of bed. ...
Yet Saber's efforts to collect Social Security disability benefits have been met with repeated denials.
Along with almost 15,000 people in the Tampa Bay area, Saber is waiting for a hearing before an administrative law judge who will hear her next appeal.
She has been waiting for that hearing date since April 2, 2007.
Her attorneys say she will likely be waiting a lot longer - perhaps more than two years - because of a backlog in appeals cases. ...
"Social Security has a very rigid definition of disability that has to be backed up by medical evidence and the tons of paperwork that has to be completed precisely," says Dan Allsup of Allsup, Inc., a national company that represents applicants. Most of the staff at Allsup are former Social Security employees.
"We can present a completed, properly documented case to Social Security where all they have to do is say yes or no. This is a tremendous time saver for the government and the applicants."
Nonetheless, Allsup only accepts 8 percent of the potential applicants who ask for help. Of those applicants, half get their benefits at the first step of the process.
Screening prospect calls so well that you take on only 8% of the people who call; screening so well that you win 50% at the initial level? Now that's cherry picking!
A new judge selected and trained to help clear a backlog of Social Security disability appeals has declined the job.
"The Social Security Administration still intends to hire an administrative law judge for the Tampa hearing offices," Desmond Thornton, a Social Security spokesman, said Friday in confirming a new judge would have to be selected.
Unfortunately, because the individual who had accepted the position changed his mind shortly before he was due to report, the Social Security Administration is unable to repost the vacancy right away, Thornton said. The Office of Personal Management has to announce the opening and so far, that hasn't been done.
The news of the delay angered Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, who represents part of Manatee County.
"They don't have a backup plan. Now someone else will have to go through the training," Castor said.
From A Connecticut Law Blog:
567-68-0515
That’s it. That is really the social security number of the 37th President of The United States, Richard Millhous Nixon.
444-26-7015 is/was Mickey Mantle’s social security number.
The Splendid Splinter, The Greatest Hitter To Ever Live, American Hero, Ted Williams’ social security number: 565-03-1343.
I’m not making this stuff up. No false advertising here.
How did I get these? Easy. Really easy.
The Social Security Death Index contains the social security numbers, date of birth, date of death, last residence, last benefit, and state of issue of more than 82 million people.
