Case Loads and Sites

[aljsouth]

I don't know if anyone is interested or if the stats will help figure out what sites are likely to get judges; but, I am willing to check the monthly report and check out sites you are interested in for case load.

This is guess work at most but it might give a clue if ODAR is really looking at need for once. Please remember regional office politics and congressional politics will play a role. Also I have no idea of empty ALJ or other offices in those sites. Post here and I will try to check every day if I can.

[deltajudge]

South, there is no rhyme or reason to how ODAR does this. I've been gone for almost two years now, and basically it is what you see here on this board. Where are the empty offices? What it is, they do not want to spend any money on building new offices and are relying on VTC. What it is eventually going to get down to, is you are not going to have all these hearing offices. You are going to have regional hearing offices. When this crap first started, a fellow ALJ and myself, both of us having been around for some time, said just that. You have a Judge in Podunk, no hearings, and someone calls from Region 10 and says they have a hearing thats needs to be held, and wonders if the Judge in Podunk can take it. So that is where it is headed.

[aljsouth]

deltajudge said:

South, there is no rhyme or reason to how ODAR does this. I've been gone for almost two years now, and basically it is what you see here on this board. Where are the empty offices? What it is, they do not want to spend any money on building new offices and are relying on VTC. What it is eventually going to get down to, is you are not going to have all these hearing offices. You are going to have regional hearing offices. When this crap first started, a fellow ALJ and myself, both of us having been around for some time, said just that. You have a Judge in Podunk, no hearings, and someone calls from Region 10 and says they have a hearing thats needs to be held, and wonders if the Judge in Podunk can take it. So that is where it is headed.

Yes, I agree no reason has been used in the past and perhaps none will be used this time. Never bet on ODAR using logic.

I think ODAR would love to use the Medicare solution, pick out four expensive places in america and do all hearings by phone (VTC is too expensive). If they fear due process and U.S. District Court then they will fall back to VTC. The element you leave out is congressional politics. Most congress members and senators will not like losing hearing offices back home. Sure VTC is ok as a temporary fix to a backlog, but let local offices close with their payrolls in small town south or midwest and COSS will feel the heat.

[odarite]

True enough, but we ain't there yet. Since there are more vacancies than ODAR can fill considering budget etc. when they hire the first class it will be for judges where there is both a high case per judge load and a vacant office. Also the next class. Attrition is an ugly thing in this context.

[learnedhand]

It would make sense to put the new judges in empty hearing offices particularly with the VTC equipment. Our office has gotten work from other offices for hearing and we have sent some out of our office for the same thing. I realize there is supposed to be this Falls Church unit, but the agency has much more flexibility now than it had in the past.

[chieftain]

A question or two on VTC hearings: do I assume correctly that the ALJ is the only person connected by video; i.e., the claimant/attorney and the VE are together? If this is the case, is it unwieldy for the AJ to follow along in the records? Are duplicate hard copies made or does the ALJ have an electronic file? I have taken any number of video conference depositions and all parties typically have copies of the same Bates stamped records for easy reference. I'm just curious about the dynamic of the videoconferenced hearing. Also, with regard to expense, the main cost is associated with the initial purchase and set up of the equipment, correct? Once the equipment is in place, the cost is minimal to operate, correct? Or am I missing something. Thanks for any insight.

[odarite]

The ALJ is in one place, the claimant is in another. After that, anything is possible. The claimant's attorney is usually in the same place as the claimant. The VE can be in either location (or even - and usually by telephone - a third place. Ditto any ME. The hearing monitor (court reporter) is usually in the location of the claimant. For electronic files, the remote site has CD copies of the evidence, but then that is the way it works even if the electronic file case is being heard with everyone in one location (the ALJ has access to the mainframe electronic record, everyone else uses a CD. With paper files, the process is messier. The ALJ has the official file. The ME and VE are provided with extracts of the record by the hearing office. The claimant and/or rep are responsible for getting whatever copies of the record they want to have with them - ODAR does not routinely make duplicate copies of the official file for this purpose. About cost, who knows. Not a noticeable concern at ODAR after installation.

[ruonthelist]

Good question, allrise. The main savings is the ALJ's travel, which is both a direct cost (airfare/mileage, lodging, per diem, etc.) and an indirect cost in downtime. An ALJ has to average less than 4 hours on each case to produce the number of dispositions that the agency wants. An ALJ on a plane or behind the wheel of a car is not getting work done on a casefile.

And chieftain, once you get to ODAR the days of everybody referring consistently to the same set of Bates stamped exhibits will become a distant memory. Duplicates, missing documents, and last minute submissions will be the order of the day.

[kingfisher]

allrise said:

I don't understand how this system saves money. If the claimant is appearing in an ODAR office with the hearing monitor and video equipment, how does it save money when the alj is not in the room?

______________________________________

My office has, through Video Hearings, helped several offices in our Region with their backlog. By using the VTC system, we were able to be at the office rather than on the road. There was a savings in time, travel expenses and "wear and tear" on the ALJ. I found it to be a very efficient process and enjoyed it.

[aljsouth]

It can work; but it is not the answer to our woes. I have used it. It is like talking to someone in Iraq, you ask a question, wait, then wait for them to reply, wait, then you speak. Very slow. Also in the middle of a statement the camera will go out of focus for no reason. The claimants sometimes have their backs to windows and you can't see them. Also, we usually hear far more cases per day on the road (no other work to do) than at home, so you really don't hear as many cases with VTC than in person.

We have two VTC hearing rooms in our home office and 4 at remote sites. The two VTC at home are also the two best of three hearing rooms so they are used a lot for regular hearings. If we tried to do our remote sites by VTC we would bottleneck in the two VTC hearing rooms and all our hearings would slow down, not speed up. It was very valuable in dealing with 1000 day old cases. We could piggy back 1 case at a remote site by using another judge's VE and hearing reporter at that site. It is also valuable for out of state judges to hear some of our remote cases.

The place it should be most valuable are prison cases. But none of the prisons here have VTC (the main prison has one for the federal courts, but Falls Church told us it was not compatable). Prison cases are a complete pain. All prison systems have decentralized and prisoners are scattered across the state and in private facilities. You simply cannot get a docket of cases sufficient to make it worthwhile to go to a satellite prison. Reports and VE's refuse to go for one case. The case ages and then management has a fit to get it heard, including twisting arms to do it by phone, which is not authorized by any reg or Hallex.