Top Ten Advice for new ALJs

A lot of talk about robes, here. Regardless of what you wear, you will look like the Emperor with no clothes if you don't prepare yourself in other more important ways: 1) prep each case - that is, review the case file prior to the hearing, be aware of the claimant's treatment history or lack thereof, so you can ask intelligent and probative questions at the hearing and not simply follow a rote question checklist you will get at training; 2) about half or more of the cases are electronic now so, puh-lease, do not model yourself after many of the acting ALJs who loathe the computer - do your best to adapt to all electronic means; 3) don't get lost in the social welfare issues or mentality that you are protecting the trust fund - this distracts from the disability decision you have to make under the regs; 4) remember that you make the disability decision and nobody else, certainly not the VE, and to assist in this endeavor make a judgment based on the various opinion evidence in the file from physicians and form an opinion of their merit prior to the hearing, so you can form an appropriate vocational expert "hypothetical" question or make a decision as to whether you need a consultative medical opinion prior to the actual hearing (not after); 5) use VEs in all cases (except child cases) and not selectively; 6) never employ vague RFC hypothetical questions, rather use specific limits based on the impairments that are objectively documented; 7) never use self comparisons to the claimant's disability and always be open to what they are saying and appear fair and concerned; 8) write legible instructions and always write out your RFC hypotheticals, which ones you are relying on, and (most important) from where are the RFC limitations derived, from a medical opinion or from you; and 9) make sensible and not emotional judgements on the claimant's crediblity and write your comments down for the decision writer to employ in the decision. - you would be amazed how many ALJs let the writers make "their" credibility judgments for them.

Very good post MrJones. Thank you.

So you'd think, but the mindset of the agency is exemplified by those who drafted the CPMS coding. There an affirmation means a denial and a reversal means a favorable decision.

Chris--it refers to the internal coding process entries for ODAR. It also specifies which employee has possession of case and at what stage of the process. The old name was HOTS (Hearing Office Tracking System).

If you actually mean this, I have to disagree; there's absolutely no good reason (unless required by local circuit caselaw) to use VEs in all cases (and for what you're going to be paid, you OUGHT to be able to make some decisions for yourself!). Rather, use VEs in all appropriate cases (which I won't go into, since it will all be explained in detail during your training).

I remembered this discussion thread from months ago, when I read it with interest--just in case. Now that the day is actually here for some of us, and soon will be for many more of us, I thought it might be helpful to drag it closer to "Page One, above the fold," as I was impressed by the quality of thought reflected herein. Thanks to all who posted on it.

Agreed; the thread needs to be read by anyone who gets an appointment.

Once you finish training and get to your office, take your time and learn the program. There is a lot to learn. Don't try to do 50 decisions a month until you have been there for a year or so.

Go back and read the materials you received in training. They will mean more now than they did then.

Sit down with a VE and have him tell you exactly what format he would like the questions from the judge and the content of the questions. Also, see if you can get a copy of the VE "Manual" written by Judge Cristaudo a number of years ago. Study that manual.

When I was in training one of our instructors was a HOCALJ in, I believe, Flint Michigan. She gave some excellent advice. Her theory was that all judges ought to be able to get out about 50 decisions a month (assuming sufficient work up and competent decision writing). She told us if a judge was getting out fewer than 40 decisions a month, he was doing something wrong.
If he got out more than 60 a month, he wasn't doing something right. Good advice. Remember it.

Listen to the attorneys and paralegals; they know a whole lot more about the system and writing decisions than you will know. Follow their advice, and they might actually take pity on you and offer more advice.

Treat the staff with courtesy and respect and they will work for you. You will need their help and support to be productive and efficient.

I could go on, but there are other things I need to do today, and it would take a day or so (a week or so?) to put it all on paper.

Here is an array of ten bits of advice; whether they belong at the top of the bottom is for the reader to decide:

1. The senior attorney is busier than you are. Don't park yourself in his/her office to regale him/her about how much fun you had at the game the night before.

2. Don't bypass the decision writing assignment system in your office to bring cases to a preferred writer. Just as writers must share the bad judges, so must the judges share the bad writers.

3. When you get to a remote hearing site and find that you do not have all of your case files, do not blame the clerk--blame yourself for being too lazy to make sure you have everything.

4. We have names--learn them. BTW, my first name is Mister since your first name is Judge.

5. We don't socialize outside of the office so keep it professional in the office. I am not your friend.

6. Give the United States eight hours per day, five days per week, on a regular and routine basis.

7. Don't tell the staff how rough you have it; some of them are making do with less than 1/3 of your salary.

8. Keep your instructions short and to the point. If your instructions say "favorable based upon Rule 201.02", I can figure out that no listing is met and that the claimant cannot perform past relevant work, among other things.

9. Learn how to edit documents in Word. Sending something back to me to insert two commas is not going to further our professional relationship but it will tell me that you are lazy.

10. Don't bother looking for someone to blame for a remanded decision.

We are blessed with some very good staff attorneys; I can't manage the caseload we need to do without relying on them to backstop me. We are going to miss stuff espescially in the e-file envvironment where it is so easy to skip over something that may be material. I have encouraged every attorney and paralegal writer to change anything in my decision that doesn't change the outcome (and note what is was and why) and to alert me when they think I blew it. I will never ask an attorney to write a decision they believe to be contrary to the evidence of record. It helps me to sleep better at night and in fifteen years there have only been two occasions where we couldn't come to an agreement and I wrote those two decisions. And yes I wear a robe as do all the judges in our office for the reason best espoused some time ago by Pixie- the claimant expects you to and that is what is important.