ALJ Hiring FAQ Part 3 - ODAR Background & Glossary
Mar 28, 2009 21:23:23 GMT -5
almostheaven likes this
Post by ALJD on Mar 28, 2009 21:23:23 GMT -5
ALJ Hiring FAQ Part 3 - updated 5/31/2009
Thanks (and credits for questions/answers) go to: barkeley, jagghagg, morgullord, nonamouse, northwest, odarite, oldjag, privateatty, propmaster, runonthelist, statman, semipa, wallace
Table of Content
Part 1 - Intro & Hiring Process
Part 2 - Training & Benefits
Part 3 - ODAR Background & Glossary
ODAR Background Information
Please explain the role of the HOCALJ with respect to the ALJs in the HO?
The HOCALJ (hearing office chief judge) is the first line supervisor for the judges. He/she does not do performance ratings as judges do not have them, but approves leave, initiates investigations/discipline actions, approves travel vouchers, authorizes travel and the other things a supervisor in the federal sector does. Given the judge's status under the APA, it is more persuasion than direction. I have heard it described as akin to herding kittens. The HOCALJ in many regions is the deciding official for awards for all of the office staff (judges are not eligible for awards) and is the second line supervisor to the Group Supervisor and third line for the rest of the staff
The HOCALJ counts as either .75 or .50 of a judge for production depending on the office, but most do much more than that. In addition to doing almost a full load as a judge, there are a lot of administrative duties. The only extra pay is one in-grade increase when appointed--unless they are already at the top of the scale.
What the role of the HOD is vs. the role of the HOCALJ?
Generally, the HOD (hearing office director) is a management official, and that's all he/she ever does - personnel issues, admin, supervision, etc. Some HODs are lawyers while others are not. The HOD is also the immediate supervisor for the Group Supervisors.
The HOD, in turn, is supervised by the HOCALJ, who is the administrative head of the office. The HOD does get a performance rating by the HOCALJ. The idea is for the HOCALJ to set the general goals for the office and the HOD carries out these directives. If the HOCALJ is more focused on doing the judge duties sometimes the HOD feels he/she is the real head of the office and tries to run it despite the HOCALJ--a very nasty situation.
What is the difference between the DO and the DDS?
The DO refers to the District Office, which the SSA's first face to the public. People go to the DO to file their intial claims for disability benefits. They also go there to file for retirement benefits and get social security cards. The DO does the initial work on disability cases to determine eligibility, such as verify the claimant is not working, meets insured status requirments, and is under income and resource limits, depending on the type of benefits filed for. Once the initial medical records have been gathered, the DO forwards the case to the DDS.
The DDS is the Disability Determinations Service. They are staff by medical doctors and psychologists, many of whom are retired from practise. They review the paper file and issue opinions regarding whether a listing has been met or what residual funcitonal capacity (RFC) the claimant should have given his impairments.
The DO then evaluates the RFC in light of the claimant's basic vocational factors and determines whether the claimant meets SSA's regulatory guidelines for disability.
How then does the claim get to the ALJ?
If the DO determines a claimant is not disabled under SSA Regulations, he can appeal this decision by requesting the DO reconsider its finding. It the DO denies the claim upon reconsideration, the claimant has the right to request a hearing before an ALJ.
Does it end after the ALJ stage?
No. If an ALJ denies a claimant's application for benefits, the next level of appeal is the Appeals Council. After that, federal district court.
What is the field office?
Usually the field office refers to the DO, although in some contexts it might refer to the ODAR offices.
Are all these people federal employees?
No. ODAR and DO employees are federal, but SSA gives money to the states to run the DDS. Technically, they are state employees and you may seem some variation between states in how cases are developed. ODAR have on occasion used DO employees on OT but never DDS employees.
ODAR Decision Writing
What is an ODAR final decision like?
ODAR decisions contain personal medical detail and are not published. So you won't find it in the public domain. Below are two excellent posts from our members discussing this issue. If you want to read the full thread, it is here.
From statman:
There is a standard format in that the decisions consist of boilerplate plus a rationale which is often part boilerplate and part not. Length varies but I would say between 3 and 10 pages for rationale of decision. Unfavorable decisions tend to be longer because they may be appealed.
Bench decisions get to the claimant faster. They are followed by a written opinion, generally much shorter than otherwise. The decision is not final until written. Bench decisions are used only when fully favorable to claimant.
Some judges use the procedure often, others never use it. It is mostly a matter of style.
You meet the requirements by making common sense decisions as to how much proof you need to come to a reasonable conclusion. The hard part is making the correct decision when the evidence is less than complete and what you do have is contradictory. You can try to solve the dilemma by asking for more records but often the additional records do not exist or do not add anything new. Ultimately you must come to the most reasonable conclusion and move on.
You would be surprised by how much variation there is from ALJ to ALJ.
Follow-up by propmaster:
1) Trained writers can write a "good" fully favorable decision in 1-3 hours depending on the accuracy and completeness of ALJ instructions and the size of the evidence - or a minimally sufficient decision in an hour or less. A partially favorable (meaning the claimant did not receive all of the benefits requested) or an unfavorable decision take longer. I find 2-3 hours to be a bit low for an average, I know they get 8 hours to be considered completely efficient and I would expect it to take 3-6 hours given the same factors listed above. It is less common to get minimally sufficient unfavorable decisions because they are more likely to be appealed.
As pointed out by the guest, an ALJ does not write most if any of his/her decisions (except at the very beginning). If he or she did, it would take significantly less time because he or she would already be familiar with the evidence and would not have to make any assumptions about the ALJ's intentions. However, it is FAR more efficient to leave the writing to the staff and get on to evaluating the next case(s). The editing of a case written for the ALJ can range from 0 (zero) time to a substantial rewrite, depending on the ALJ and the case.
2) The templates provided are [voluminous (edited for clarity)] (albeit not perfect by any means) and the main law the ALJ has to know are the exceptions to the comprehensive template language. The VAST majority of cases apply the identical law as the others in the VAST majority of cases and the ALJ's primary job is weighing the facts in accordance with regulation and policy.
3) I agree bench decisions are good tools. There is a script to read which should prevent the "things going wrong" as long as the ALJ has diligently reviewed the case (i.e. looked for and discussed earnings, addressed inconsistencies in medical opinions, etc.). The written order is basically a summary of the impairments and a reminder that the person already won at the hearing. And the ALJ does not have to prepare the document him/herself.
4) I would agree with (but exapnd upon) Statman on the main responsibilities of the ALJ to be
a) ensure enough evidence exists to make a decision. Otherwise, get a consultative examination (CE), which is an agency-paid-for medical exam, or additional treatment records, or additional lay testimony, etc. If not enough evidence can exist (for instance if the individual is alleging disability in the past and current evaluations or medical expert testimony cannot shed light on the time period (including the use of Social Security Rulings designed to address this issue)) the claimant has the burden of proof and loses. However, failure to get evidence that should reasonably be gotten will often result in simply getting the case back on remand to do again.
b) Weigh the evidence using the regulations and policies of the agency. An ALJ's job is not to clothe the homeless and not to guard the trust fund. An ALJ's job is to apply the facts in a case to the law. The policy concerns of the Act (e.g. if it is a statute of relief) are determined by the agency, not the ALJ. The worst ALJ's open the file looking for a reason to deny the claim, the second-worst ALJ's open the file looking for a reason to pay the claim. The ALJ should be looking for facts and letting the facts dictate the outcome (IMHO).
Nonetheless, most cases that require judicial review are close cases, where the evidence could arguably support either outcome. The ALJ must weigh the credibility of witnesses (including the claimant) and the weigh the opinions of medical sources (including agency employees) to determine how limited a person really is. Can Joe Claimant really lift fifty pounds for up to two hours a day? Does Betty Claimant really need to lie down every afternoon to control her back pain? The ALJ must make (and live with) these decisions. This is the hard part (or should be) and this is the time consuming part (or should be). Once the ALJ makes the decision in his or her mind, the Order part is easy and relatively fast.
c) Represent the ALJ corps, the Social Security Administration, judges in general, and the US government with honor. I change my mind on the worst ALJs - the worst ALJs are the arrogant tyrants who talk over claimant's testimony, yell at claimants, berate claimants, and/or treat them with disdain. This might be an individual's only interaction with (what they consider) the "justice system." Even the worst liar should be treated respectfully during the hearing and, if denied (not all liars are able to work), given a cogent rationale free from offensive language. No judge should asume that they will be right EVERY SINGLE decision. Your personal views of an individual can easily turn out to be wrong, and having had two clients commit suicide after receiving decisions from ALJs (one of which was a disgusting piece of attack language), I can tell you that you should remain aware that all people should be treated as fellow human beings. I've known a judge who ran hearings so aggressively that lawyers would be crying when they left his hearing room (no exaggeration). [He is, thankfully, apparently on some kind of medication now.] This is obviously unacceptable.
Anyway, I hope everyone who gets appointed remembers that you are FAR less likely to be appealed if you focus on facts and not on judgmentalism.
Glossary
Thanks to nonamouse for her extensive inputs! ;D
AA - Attorney Advisors. Decision writers (up to GS-12) in SSA.
Awards - Recognition, one-time cash payments and in rare cases an increase to the next higher pay "step" for the staff; ALJs can nominate hard working staff by writing up a short form that will go to management. Highly recommended if you got hard charging staff working for you.
CALJ - Chief Administrative Law Judge. Currently Judge Frank Cristaudo. Manages and administers the hearing organization consisting of ten regional offices, 141 hearing offices, and five satellite offices (see also OCALJ below).
CT - case technician who gets files ready pre-hearing, scans and exhibits documents, schedules hearings, etc; SCT = senior case technician who basically does many of the same tasks as a CT, but with more experience, and finally, LCT or "lead" = lead case technician (not a supervisor) ditto with more responsibilities than the SCTs
DDS - disability determination services (where the initial and reconsideration reviews of SSA cases are done by state agency workers, sometimes MDs and sometimes not)
GS - Group Supervisors - GS-13 supervisors in charge of staff teams in local hearing offices. May or may not be an attorney.
HOCALJ - Hearing Office Chief Administrative Law Judge; management ALJ appointed by HQ to manage a local hearing office.
HOD - Hearing Office Director. GS-14 management official who manages the hearing office with HOCALJ.
Master docket - the place in the hearing office where cases are processed into an office's jurisdiction
New hire query (abbreviated NH in QM) = a very useful search that shows the most recent earnings reported for an individual including those from last year that will not show up on the standard queries run when a case is "worked up" pre-hearing; it can save an ALJ from trying to pay someone who fails to mention that they have returned to work full-time; shows the date hired for the most recent job where SSA contributions were paid
OCALJ - Office of the Chief Administrative Law Judge. The big HQ in Falls Church, VA in charge of the Regional Offices and all the local Hearing Offices.
ODAR - Office of Disability Adjudication and Review. Component of SSA responsible for disability adjudication and review. Hires most (probably 95%) of ALJs off the OPM registry, and that's why we talk about it most of the time.
"The Payment Center" - people in Baltimore who process the cases where benefits are awarded and who call to chastise ALJs who try to pay people who are working full-time or are otherwise ineligible on some non-disability grounds (see new hire query entry)
PCOM - the mainframe access to queries
Queries - various types of searches from SSA records that provide needed info on the person's current or past applications and any prior receipt of benefits, earnings record, etc.
Query master (QM)= a tool within PCOM that allows a more Windows-like search for queries for a single individual or in batches for multiple SSNs; (extremely useful tool for ALJs with no prior PCOM experience; learn how to use it while in your hearing office)
Region - The Regional Office (aka Regional HQ) for a SSA Region. Responsible for managing all the local Hearing Offices in its geographical area.
RCALJ - Regional Chief Administrative Law Judge; the management ALJ in-charge of an entire SSA Region. Much bigger deal than a HOCALJ.
SAA - Senior Attorney Advisor. GS-13 decision writers and more. In addition to just writing, SAA also screen cases for those that can be paid without a hearing (OTR = on the record decision) and then they write those fully favorable decisions plus some of the more complex decisions from ALJs. They can also be asked to research the occasional question for an ALJ, give advice on an unfamiliar issue and draft interrogatories for a VE (VE = vocational expert) or ME (ME = medical expert).
Thanks (and credits for questions/answers) go to: barkeley, jagghagg, morgullord, nonamouse, northwest, odarite, oldjag, privateatty, propmaster, runonthelist, statman, semipa, wallace
Table of Content
Part 1 - Intro & Hiring Process
Part 2 - Training & Benefits
Part 3 - ODAR Background & Glossary
ODAR Background Information
Please explain the role of the HOCALJ with respect to the ALJs in the HO?
The HOCALJ (hearing office chief judge) is the first line supervisor for the judges. He/she does not do performance ratings as judges do not have them, but approves leave, initiates investigations/discipline actions, approves travel vouchers, authorizes travel and the other things a supervisor in the federal sector does. Given the judge's status under the APA, it is more persuasion than direction. I have heard it described as akin to herding kittens. The HOCALJ in many regions is the deciding official for awards for all of the office staff (judges are not eligible for awards) and is the second line supervisor to the Group Supervisor and third line for the rest of the staff
The HOCALJ counts as either .75 or .50 of a judge for production depending on the office, but most do much more than that. In addition to doing almost a full load as a judge, there are a lot of administrative duties. The only extra pay is one in-grade increase when appointed--unless they are already at the top of the scale.
What the role of the HOD is vs. the role of the HOCALJ?
Generally, the HOD (hearing office director) is a management official, and that's all he/she ever does - personnel issues, admin, supervision, etc. Some HODs are lawyers while others are not. The HOD is also the immediate supervisor for the Group Supervisors.
The HOD, in turn, is supervised by the HOCALJ, who is the administrative head of the office. The HOD does get a performance rating by the HOCALJ. The idea is for the HOCALJ to set the general goals for the office and the HOD carries out these directives. If the HOCALJ is more focused on doing the judge duties sometimes the HOD feels he/she is the real head of the office and tries to run it despite the HOCALJ--a very nasty situation.
What is the difference between the DO and the DDS?
The DO refers to the District Office, which the SSA's first face to the public. People go to the DO to file their intial claims for disability benefits. They also go there to file for retirement benefits and get social security cards. The DO does the initial work on disability cases to determine eligibility, such as verify the claimant is not working, meets insured status requirments, and is under income and resource limits, depending on the type of benefits filed for. Once the initial medical records have been gathered, the DO forwards the case to the DDS.
The DDS is the Disability Determinations Service. They are staff by medical doctors and psychologists, many of whom are retired from practise. They review the paper file and issue opinions regarding whether a listing has been met or what residual funcitonal capacity (RFC) the claimant should have given his impairments.
The DO then evaluates the RFC in light of the claimant's basic vocational factors and determines whether the claimant meets SSA's regulatory guidelines for disability.
How then does the claim get to the ALJ?
If the DO determines a claimant is not disabled under SSA Regulations, he can appeal this decision by requesting the DO reconsider its finding. It the DO denies the claim upon reconsideration, the claimant has the right to request a hearing before an ALJ.
Does it end after the ALJ stage?
No. If an ALJ denies a claimant's application for benefits, the next level of appeal is the Appeals Council. After that, federal district court.
What is the field office?
Usually the field office refers to the DO, although in some contexts it might refer to the ODAR offices.
Are all these people federal employees?
No. ODAR and DO employees are federal, but SSA gives money to the states to run the DDS. Technically, they are state employees and you may seem some variation between states in how cases are developed. ODAR have on occasion used DO employees on OT but never DDS employees.
ODAR Decision Writing
What is an ODAR final decision like?
ODAR decisions contain personal medical detail and are not published. So you won't find it in the public domain. Below are two excellent posts from our members discussing this issue. If you want to read the full thread, it is here.
From statman:
There is a standard format in that the decisions consist of boilerplate plus a rationale which is often part boilerplate and part not. Length varies but I would say between 3 and 10 pages for rationale of decision. Unfavorable decisions tend to be longer because they may be appealed.
Bench decisions get to the claimant faster. They are followed by a written opinion, generally much shorter than otherwise. The decision is not final until written. Bench decisions are used only when fully favorable to claimant.
Some judges use the procedure often, others never use it. It is mostly a matter of style.
You meet the requirements by making common sense decisions as to how much proof you need to come to a reasonable conclusion. The hard part is making the correct decision when the evidence is less than complete and what you do have is contradictory. You can try to solve the dilemma by asking for more records but often the additional records do not exist or do not add anything new. Ultimately you must come to the most reasonable conclusion and move on.
You would be surprised by how much variation there is from ALJ to ALJ.
Follow-up by propmaster:
1) Trained writers can write a "good" fully favorable decision in 1-3 hours depending on the accuracy and completeness of ALJ instructions and the size of the evidence - or a minimally sufficient decision in an hour or less. A partially favorable (meaning the claimant did not receive all of the benefits requested) or an unfavorable decision take longer. I find 2-3 hours to be a bit low for an average, I know they get 8 hours to be considered completely efficient and I would expect it to take 3-6 hours given the same factors listed above. It is less common to get minimally sufficient unfavorable decisions because they are more likely to be appealed.
As pointed out by the guest, an ALJ does not write most if any of his/her decisions (except at the very beginning). If he or she did, it would take significantly less time because he or she would already be familiar with the evidence and would not have to make any assumptions about the ALJ's intentions. However, it is FAR more efficient to leave the writing to the staff and get on to evaluating the next case(s). The editing of a case written for the ALJ can range from 0 (zero) time to a substantial rewrite, depending on the ALJ and the case.
2) The templates provided are [voluminous (edited for clarity)] (albeit not perfect by any means) and the main law the ALJ has to know are the exceptions to the comprehensive template language. The VAST majority of cases apply the identical law as the others in the VAST majority of cases and the ALJ's primary job is weighing the facts in accordance with regulation and policy.
3) I agree bench decisions are good tools. There is a script to read which should prevent the "things going wrong" as long as the ALJ has diligently reviewed the case (i.e. looked for and discussed earnings, addressed inconsistencies in medical opinions, etc.). The written order is basically a summary of the impairments and a reminder that the person already won at the hearing. And the ALJ does not have to prepare the document him/herself.
4) I would agree with (but exapnd upon) Statman on the main responsibilities of the ALJ to be
a) ensure enough evidence exists to make a decision. Otherwise, get a consultative examination (CE), which is an agency-paid-for medical exam, or additional treatment records, or additional lay testimony, etc. If not enough evidence can exist (for instance if the individual is alleging disability in the past and current evaluations or medical expert testimony cannot shed light on the time period (including the use of Social Security Rulings designed to address this issue)) the claimant has the burden of proof and loses. However, failure to get evidence that should reasonably be gotten will often result in simply getting the case back on remand to do again.
b) Weigh the evidence using the regulations and policies of the agency. An ALJ's job is not to clothe the homeless and not to guard the trust fund. An ALJ's job is to apply the facts in a case to the law. The policy concerns of the Act (e.g. if it is a statute of relief) are determined by the agency, not the ALJ. The worst ALJ's open the file looking for a reason to deny the claim, the second-worst ALJ's open the file looking for a reason to pay the claim. The ALJ should be looking for facts and letting the facts dictate the outcome (IMHO).
Nonetheless, most cases that require judicial review are close cases, where the evidence could arguably support either outcome. The ALJ must weigh the credibility of witnesses (including the claimant) and the weigh the opinions of medical sources (including agency employees) to determine how limited a person really is. Can Joe Claimant really lift fifty pounds for up to two hours a day? Does Betty Claimant really need to lie down every afternoon to control her back pain? The ALJ must make (and live with) these decisions. This is the hard part (or should be) and this is the time consuming part (or should be). Once the ALJ makes the decision in his or her mind, the Order part is easy and relatively fast.
c) Represent the ALJ corps, the Social Security Administration, judges in general, and the US government with honor. I change my mind on the worst ALJs - the worst ALJs are the arrogant tyrants who talk over claimant's testimony, yell at claimants, berate claimants, and/or treat them with disdain. This might be an individual's only interaction with (what they consider) the "justice system." Even the worst liar should be treated respectfully during the hearing and, if denied (not all liars are able to work), given a cogent rationale free from offensive language. No judge should asume that they will be right EVERY SINGLE decision. Your personal views of an individual can easily turn out to be wrong, and having had two clients commit suicide after receiving decisions from ALJs (one of which was a disgusting piece of attack language), I can tell you that you should remain aware that all people should be treated as fellow human beings. I've known a judge who ran hearings so aggressively that lawyers would be crying when they left his hearing room (no exaggeration). [He is, thankfully, apparently on some kind of medication now.] This is obviously unacceptable.
Anyway, I hope everyone who gets appointed remembers that you are FAR less likely to be appealed if you focus on facts and not on judgmentalism.
Glossary
Thanks to nonamouse for her extensive inputs! ;D
AA - Attorney Advisors. Decision writers (up to GS-12) in SSA.
Awards - Recognition, one-time cash payments and in rare cases an increase to the next higher pay "step" for the staff; ALJs can nominate hard working staff by writing up a short form that will go to management. Highly recommended if you got hard charging staff working for you.
CALJ - Chief Administrative Law Judge. Currently Judge Frank Cristaudo. Manages and administers the hearing organization consisting of ten regional offices, 141 hearing offices, and five satellite offices (see also OCALJ below).
CT - case technician who gets files ready pre-hearing, scans and exhibits documents, schedules hearings, etc; SCT = senior case technician who basically does many of the same tasks as a CT, but with more experience, and finally, LCT or "lead" = lead case technician (not a supervisor) ditto with more responsibilities than the SCTs
DDS - disability determination services (where the initial and reconsideration reviews of SSA cases are done by state agency workers, sometimes MDs and sometimes not)
GS - Group Supervisors - GS-13 supervisors in charge of staff teams in local hearing offices. May or may not be an attorney.
HOCALJ - Hearing Office Chief Administrative Law Judge; management ALJ appointed by HQ to manage a local hearing office.
HOD - Hearing Office Director. GS-14 management official who manages the hearing office with HOCALJ.
Master docket - the place in the hearing office where cases are processed into an office's jurisdiction
New hire query (abbreviated NH in QM) = a very useful search that shows the most recent earnings reported for an individual including those from last year that will not show up on the standard queries run when a case is "worked up" pre-hearing; it can save an ALJ from trying to pay someone who fails to mention that they have returned to work full-time; shows the date hired for the most recent job where SSA contributions were paid
OCALJ - Office of the Chief Administrative Law Judge. The big HQ in Falls Church, VA in charge of the Regional Offices and all the local Hearing Offices.
ODAR - Office of Disability Adjudication and Review. Component of SSA responsible for disability adjudication and review. Hires most (probably 95%) of ALJs off the OPM registry, and that's why we talk about it most of the time.
"The Payment Center" - people in Baltimore who process the cases where benefits are awarded and who call to chastise ALJs who try to pay people who are working full-time or are otherwise ineligible on some non-disability grounds (see new hire query entry)
PCOM - the mainframe access to queries
Queries - various types of searches from SSA records that provide needed info on the person's current or past applications and any prior receipt of benefits, earnings record, etc.
Query master (QM)= a tool within PCOM that allows a more Windows-like search for queries for a single individual or in batches for multiple SSNs; (extremely useful tool for ALJs with no prior PCOM experience; learn how to use it while in your hearing office)
Region - The Regional Office (aka Regional HQ) for a SSA Region. Responsible for managing all the local Hearing Offices in its geographical area.
RCALJ - Regional Chief Administrative Law Judge; the management ALJ in-charge of an entire SSA Region. Much bigger deal than a HOCALJ.
SAA - Senior Attorney Advisor. GS-13 decision writers and more. In addition to just writing, SAA also screen cases for those that can be paid without a hearing (OTR = on the record decision) and then they write those fully favorable decisions plus some of the more complex decisions from ALJs. They can also be asked to research the occasional question for an ALJ, give advice on an unfamiliar issue and draft interrogatories for a VE (VE = vocational expert) or ME (ME = medical expert).
