Astrue "Inability to deal with gross misconduct"

[deltajudge]

8-)Well, both sides need to get together. I was an ALJ for 30 years, and management never considered our grievances, and I doubt they ever will for you unfortunates coming on board. Lack of staff was always a problem which management never seemed to address, lack of production was always the ALJs fault. Don't get me wrong, there were some ALJs that should have be drawn and quartered, completely worthless, and granted there should be ways to deal with them. They are in the minority, but just like the bad apple, make all ALJs look bad. Astrue has a problem, as long as SSA hearings are under the APA, he is going to just have to take his best shot. Forget the AALJ union, they are worthless.

[aljsouth]

Mar 1, 2008 22:23:14 GMT -5 deltajudge said:

8-)Well, both sides need to get together. I was an ALJ for 30 years, and management never considered our grievances, and I doubt they ever will for you unfortunates coming on board. Lack of staff was always a problem which management never seemed to address, lack of production was always the ALJs fault. Don't get me wrong, there were some ALJs that should have be drawn and quartered, completely worthless, and granted there should be ways to deal with them. They are in the minority, but just like the bad apple, make all ALJs look bad. Astrue has a problem, as long as SSA hearings are under the APA, he is going to just have to take his best shot. Forget the AALJ union, they are worthless.

How is the judge's union supposed to get rid of bad apples?

As far as COSS. He can seek dismissal and obtain one. It takes time, but can be done. An alj can be fired for failing to perform the duties of his job. While numbers alone don't support firing, it can be a piece of major evidence. For example, deciding 4 cases a month over a year when the evidence shows the judge was given regularly worked up cases of 40 a month. It will be very hard to defend an action for failure to perform your job. The answer is not employment at will which is what the COSS wants, but the agency spending a little time getting rid of those refusing to do their jobs. It can be done and has been done.

As a note I very much wonder about there being a judge who has decided no disability cases in seven years. Notice how carefully that was worded. Was that judge deciding other cases, is that a management judge? Congress did not know enough to ask; but any litigator would have picked up on that qualification and examined the COSS about that qualification. Bluntly, COSS is using the Karl Rove approach of smearing those he dislikes and perceives as his enemies. It is abundantly clear that COSS has decided to break the judges and really wants to be able to fire employees at will of the agency. The hostility from this COSS is the worst most of us can remember.

[judicature]

This would seem to encourage new alj's to join the union.

[happy]

I know an ALJ who disposed of few or possibly even 0 disability cases from 1998 to 2003. That's five years and I'm pretty sure the ALJ didn't do any disability cases through 2005, which would hit the 7 year mark. However, this ALJ was a Medicare cadre judge and, year for year, matched or exceeded the average ALJ for number of dispositions. Criticize all you want but, at the time, that was a legitimate workload that was the responsibility of SSA. It was more efficient to have "specialists" in that workload than to try to train all the ALJs and have them split their time between disability and Medicare. So, yeah, I suspect that (1) someone didn't understand the data that they were considering; (2) someone articulated the data correctly and someone else misinterpreted it; or, Heaven forbid, (3) ALJSouth is correct and the information was deliberately misleading.

I'm not sure I agree, though, about the COSS wanting to "break" the ALJs. Most ALJs want to do a good job, but there are a fair few out there that give the rest a bad name. Part of professionalism is self-policing. The AALJ needs to start supporting standards of professional behavior, whether or not those standards include concrete productivity measures. Seriously, now, some of these guys need to earn their paychecks!

[deltajudge]

8-)The AALJ could set up some sort of peer review board, to review complaints about bad apples, and decide whether to defend the ALJs against whom complaints have been made. Although I'm very disappointed with my experience with the union, I would say join, it is the only protection you have other than the APA.

[aljsouth]

Are there bad apples? Sure, in any group of a thousand there will be a few who are duds. It is false to say nothing can be done. It can. I was once an attorney who had the job of representing the judicial commission that oversaw state elected judges. Misconduct could and did lead to removals from office. The standards were at least as tough as the MSPB, probably higher because a commission of fellow judges had to agree to the removal and then the decision would need to be agreed to by the state supreme court. I state this to establish I am not simply talking without experience.

It can be done if you make the effort It can't if you simply want to rule by fiat, which is the aim of the COSS.

I have discovered the facts of the judge that I think was referenced by the COSS. He is a union official who was and is one of the chief negotiators for AALJ.
His HOCALJ proposed that he be taken from rotation and not be counted toward the office goal. The regional chief judge agreed (as did two others afterwards). This was known to Falls Church. Yet this is the example of judicial misconduct seized upon by COSS. Please pardon my anger but I think this was deliberately misleading by COSS to claim ALJ misconduct when it was agreed to by the agency and even encouraged by the HOCALJ (lets face it, it gave that HOCALJ a smaller goal with each remaining judge getting more cases during a time of case shortage--this was just after HPI).

You may not agree that he should have been taken from rotation, but the agency knew and approved the plan. The same is true of the low judge, 40 cases, who went back into rotation late in the year.

[aljsouth]

Mar 4, 2008 0:03:25 GMT -5 @globalpanda said:

Good points ALJSOUTH. I also wondered about the ALJ who averaged 1805 cases. Was s/he a judge "yes", never denying a case? Why were they held up as a shining example of what the administration is looking for in a judge? Mere production?

Buzz is that it is a HOCALJ who pays whatever he needs to make office goal. I will not mention a name. If true I know a judge who got one of this judge's remands. He paid a child's case because the child was in "special education." I guess it was technically true since the child was in the advanced class, and that is not a regular class now is it.

[deltajudge]

8-)Hey, you are preaching to the choir! I have no love for OHA/ODAR management. They are fools and have no idea as to the mission of ODAR. I will tell you this, they will not go after the bad apples, too much trouble, but they will talk about it and do all they can to do away with ALJs, using them as an excuse. Astrue is no friend of the ALJs or the AALJ and he is only carrying on the the tradition of management ineptness regarding SSA's relation with OHA/ODAR. As I've said here before, I feel for the new ALJs, and have tried to tell them, they have not died and gone to heaven. They are going to work for a bunch of shits.

[decadealj]

I recently saw on one of the blogs that Lisa Desoto told the NOSSCR reps in Miami that SSA has 12 ALJs now before the MSPB awaiting disciplinary action. I don't know if deltajudge or anyone else has any idea what's going on there but it certainly confirms his opinion that the current SSA leadership ain't ALJ friendly.

[lostagain]

How many of the 12 pending cases were brought by the current leadership?