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Post by peterprinciple on Mar 31, 2014 16:11:01 GMT -5
The Division of Training's SharePoint calendar site has been taken down and is no longer accessible internally. It looks to have happened about a week after my initial post. There will be no new updates from that information source. Perhaps a new source will be made available, perhaps not.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Apr 1, 2014 10:49:29 GMT -5
From the AALJ Newsletter today:
The Agency advised that it had received its budget and that ODAR was given its allocation for the remainder of the year. Funds will permit overtime allocations for pulling and writing and for training. Judicial training for approximately 300 judges will take place at the end of July and August. The budget will also permit the appointment of 90 new administrative law Judges and 405 staff members.
Also: 12. How many judges have retired so far this calendar year? Thirty two judges have retired since January 1, 2014.
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Post by Gaidin on Apr 1, 2014 11:00:21 GMT -5
From the AALJ Newsletter today: The Agency advised that it had received its budget and that ODAR was given its allocation for the remainder of the year. Funds will permit overtime allocations for pulling and writing and for training. Judicial training for approximately 300 judges will take place at the end of July and August. The budget will also permit the appointment of 90 new administrative law Judges and 405 staff members. Also: 12. How many judges have retired so far this calendar year? Thirty two judges have retired since January 1, 2014.Is this an unusually high number for this early in the year? I recall reading that the first part of the year usually had higher retirement rates anyway.
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Post by moopigsdad on Apr 1, 2014 11:08:48 GMT -5
From the AALJ Newsletter today: The Agency advised that it had received its budget and that ODAR was given its allocation for the remainder of the year. Funds will permit overtime allocations for pulling and writing and for training. Judicial training for approximately 300 judges will take place at the end of July and August. The budget will also permit the appointment of 90 new administrative law Judges and 405 staff members. Also: 12. How many judges have retired so far this calendar year? Thirty two judges have retired since January 1, 2014. Thanks for the information robg. It is much appreciated.
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Post by jerseymom on Apr 1, 2014 19:36:36 GMT -5
Phase one of training will be 3 weeks at your home office before heading to FC for group training of 4 weeks. Good luck to all who have made it this far!
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Post by privateatty on Apr 1, 2014 20:35:53 GMT -5
Judge Posner's remarks are fascinating. One thing is for sure, he doesn't read this Board. But the idea of Judges rotating from Agency to Agency is very interesting.
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Post by hopefalj on Apr 1, 2014 21:59:00 GMT -5
Judge Posner's remarks are fascinating. One thing is for sure, he doesn't read this Board. But the idea of Judges rotating from Agency to Agency is very interesting. That idea is interesting, but I wonder how practical it is and how much of a difference it would make. I assume that the bulk of cases belongs to SSA as the ALJs there represent 85-90% of all ALJs nationwide, right? And what would be the minimum time necessary at the other agencies to handle a matter? It seems like all ALJs would then be forced to spend the majority of their time as an SSA ALJ even with that change. I have a question for current and past ODAR ALJs. Are you restricted in how you use credit hours? For attorneys, we can't repeatedly use our credit hours in the same way or else we can be deemed to have created an alternative work schedule. Can you work 10 hour days M-Th and use credit to take off every Friday without issue?
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tpm
Full Member
Posts: 79
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Post by tpm on Apr 1, 2014 22:07:56 GMT -5
From the AALJ Newsletter today: The Agency advised that it had received its budget and that ODAR was given its allocation for the remainder of the year. Funds will permit overtime allocations for pulling and writing and for training. Judicial training for approximately 300 judges will take place at the end of July and August. The budget will also permit the appointment of 90 new administrative law Judges and 405 staff members. Also: 12. How many judges have retired so far this calendar year? Thirty two judges have retired since January 1, 2014. This is a neophyte question, surely, but is the training for 300 current judges and 90 hires replacing judges that retired/quit, or 300 hires replacing and 90 entirely new positions?
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Post by JudgeRatty on Apr 2, 2014 7:01:49 GMT -5
From the AALJ Newsletter today: The Agency advised that it had received its budget and that ODAR was given its allocation for the remainder of the year. Funds will permit overtime allocations for pulling and writing and for training. Judicial training for approximately 300 judges will take place at the end of July and August. The budget will also permit the appointment of 90 new administrative law Judges and 405 staff members. Also: 12. How many judges have retired so far this calendar year? Thirty two judges have retired since January 1, 2014. This is a neophyte question, surely, but is the training for 300 current judges and 90 hires replacing judges that retired/quit, or 300 hires replacing and 90 entirely new positions? 90 new appointments. Training for 300 current judges. The training for current judges usually precedes the newbie training and this year seems to follow that pattern with July/Aug for the current, and Sept/Oct for the new judges split into 2 starting classes.
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Post by funkyodar on Apr 2, 2014 7:35:38 GMT -5
Phase one of training will be 3 weeks at your home office before heading to FC for group training of 4 weeks. Good luck to all who have made it this far! Thanks JM. Any insight on why they added an additional pre-training week at the new office? They get a new batch of VODs?
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Post by 71stretch on Apr 2, 2014 7:41:00 GMT -5
Phase one of training will be 3 weeks at your home office before heading to FC for group training of 4 weeks. Good luck to all who have made it this far! Thanks JM. Any insight on why they added an additional pre-training week at the new office? They get a new batch of VODs? Or, it's a typo. Or, an April Fool's typo.
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Post by moopigsdad on Apr 2, 2014 7:44:54 GMT -5
Thank you very much for sharing the newsletter with non-ALJs. It is informative and let's us know some expectations of the ALJ position should we be lucky enough to acquire the position.
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Post by funkyodar on Apr 2, 2014 8:04:16 GMT -5
3 weeks at the new office. 4 weeks group training in FC. 2 more FC weeks if lucky/unlucky enough to get an NHC assignment. A total of up to 9 weeks of training (7 for most). A full school quarter. From the anticipated timeline, the first quarter of next school year. Most likely away from your family. Any of you guys wanna drop out, I can direct you to the "voluntary suspension from the register" thread
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Post by moopigsdad on Apr 2, 2014 9:20:56 GMT -5
Were you thinking about it funky? Since you know the thread I don't have to direct you to it.
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Post by funkyodar on Apr 2, 2014 9:29:45 GMT -5
Not gonna lie. It's daunting to think about. I've mentioned before that I have a special needs kid. Along with the other two, parenting responsibilities are pretty much a full time gig for both me and the missus. That's one of the main reasons l left private practice.
Considering the massive undertaking of preparing a move and the genrally short notice between offer and report date, I figure its highly unlikely the family will be able to go with me for the initial 3 weeks. Couple that with training and the wife is gonna be swamped for nearly 2 months.
Luckily she is fully supportive. We both recognize how fortunate we are to even be considered for this opportunity and will bear the hardship. Just fall back on the funky family motto, "This, too, shall pass."
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Post by hopefalj on Apr 2, 2014 9:32:23 GMT -5
Not gonna lie. It's daunting to think about. I've mentioned before that I have a special needs kid. Along with the other two, parenting responsibilities are pretty much a full time gig for both me and the missus. That's one of the main reasons l left private practice. Considering the massive undertaking of preparing a move and the genrally short notice between offer and report date, I figure its highly unlikely the family will be able to go with me for the initial 3 weeks. Couple that with training and the wife is gonna be swamped for nearly 2 months. Luckily she is fully supportive. We both recognize how fortunate we are to even be considered for this opportunity and will bear the hardship. Just fall back on the funky family motto, "This, too, shall pass." Hopefully you can use some of that newfound ALJ money to get her some help during that period of time to the extent you both are comfortable with it.
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Post by extang on Apr 2, 2014 9:52:18 GMT -5
Maybe somebody has already posted this? From recent AALJ newsletter, minutes of a labor-mgmt committee meeting:
The Agency advised that it had received its budget and that ODAR was given its allocation for the remainder of the year. Funds will permit overtime allocations for pulling and writing and for training. Judicial training for approximately 300 judges will take place at the end of July and August. The budget will also permit the appointment of 90 new administrative law Judges and 405 staff members. In addition, all hearing rooms in each hearing office will have new indirect lighting installed to replace the current lights so that the video equipment in the video hearing rooms will provide a much clearer view of the claimant and others.
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Post by sealaw90 on Apr 2, 2014 10:00:51 GMT -5
Judge Posner's remarks are fascinating. One thing is for sure, he doesn't read this Board. But the idea of Judges rotating from Agency to Agency is very interesting. I know of one agency's ALJs who regularly hear cases from a few other agencies. It appears to be a very good setup for both the ALJ and the agencies.
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Post by gary on Apr 2, 2014 10:08:03 GMT -5
Judge Posner's remarks are fascinating. One thing is for sure, he doesn't read this Board. But the idea of Judges rotating from Agency to Agency is very interesting. I know of one agency's ALJs who regularly hear cases from a few other agencies. It appears to be a very good setup for both the ALJ and the agencies. judge Posner's suggestion that there be a unified single corps of federal ALJs could also help insure ALJ independence from the agencies they serve.
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Post by sealaw90 on Apr 2, 2014 10:14:43 GMT -5
Yup - and the big elephant in the room (SSA) will never agree that this should happen. It's going to have to come from either Congressional action, a Supreme Court decision, or possible Executive Order. Unfortunately for those to happen it means some horrible tragedy occured that spurred folks into action/decision mode. I can't quite envision a scenario to make that happen, but I'm with you brother!
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