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Post by deaddisco on Jan 20, 2009 22:50:32 GMT -5
Deaddisco, I hope you will remove your offensive post, as you have done in the past. I applaud the people who choose to fight for what they think is right instead of adopting this go-along-to-get-along mentality. no thanks. I think I'll follow your advice. |
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Post by appellant on Jan 21, 2009 11:35:31 GMT -5
One solution for an ALJ in the situation that started this thread would be to contact the ODAR regional attorney. The regional attorney should then report the potential misconduct to OGC who would investigate and, if appropriate, OGC would report the misconduct to the state bar and/or issue a warning letter or impose Agency sanctions (suspension or disqualification). By making the report through the appropriate channels, the ALJ would arguably satisfy his or her professional ethical responsibility without violating any prohibition against making a direct report to the state bar.
In the past, reports of representative misconduct were handled by a small group at OGC headquarters. Sometimes no action was taken or it took a long time for results to be seen. In the last year, the system was changed, and the reports are now handled by the regional OGC offices. It's my understanding that the reports are taken seriously and appropriate actions are being taken in a timely manner. I beleive some OGC offices are planning to offer training/outreach in the next year to encourage reports of misconduct when appropriate (budget concerns may be a limiting factor in rolling out the training). Any such training would probably be offered to ODAR offices, including ALJs, which could help clarify an ALJ's rights/responsibilities in these situations.
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Post by Interested on Jan 21, 2009 13:43:58 GMT -5
Re: Claimant fraud and our duty/response? « Reply #13 on Jan 14, 2009, 9:26pm » -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- you received the information in connection with the administration of the social security program. the claimant has privacy rights, thus there is very little you can do with that information. While true that the claimant has privacy rights, they are generally not unlimited. Most privacy laws contain a law enforcement exception of some sort, which might cover this situation. One might also contact the SSA Office of Inspector General (OIG), which has an 800 # for reporting fraud, waste & abuse: www.ssa.gov/oig/hotline/index.htm"Tipsters" can remain anonymous, although that may impact OIG's ability to investigate. |
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Post by alj on Jan 21, 2009 15:01:33 GMT -5
You guys can quote all the regulations you want and suggest a list of things that could/should be done, but the reality is, Pixie is right.
After you have been a judge with the agency for a while, your perspective will change. Most judges just don't worry about things such as this anymore. They realize that region and OCALJ are not receptive to their concerns. And, in actuality, the regulations require the representatives to do so little, there isn't much point in having the regulations at all.
By far the vast majority of the representatives get the evidence in. They may not get it in before the day of the hearing, which creates problems, but it comes in. And the agency won't require them to get the evidence in before the day of the hearing. So why worry about it? If a lot of evidence comes in on the day of the hearing, just postpone the hearing for another day.
I hope that Appellant is correct in his post above. On the off chance that a real problem occurs with a representative, it would be nice to know that someone somewhere would take it seriously.
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