Approved by a Disability Judge - the odds

This is one of those questions that your disability attorney (or non-attorney claimant's representative) should be able to help you with if this individual has represented a large number of cases at the hearing office where your disability hearing is scheduled to be held.

This is simply because, after a number of hearings with each administrative law judge at a particular ODAR (office of disability adjudication and review--however, we will usually refer to it as simply "the hearing office"), a representative is able to get a good feeling for how a particular disability judge swings, whether its more toward disability denials or disability approvals. Also, by reviewing the stats for hearings held with each ALJ, a representative can clearly determine which judge is more favorable or less favorable to cases.

Unfortunately, you as the claimant will have no way of knowing which judge will hear your case until only a relatively short time prior to your hearing. Typically, you will not learn the name of your judge until you have received your hearing appointment notice. Your disability attorney or non-attorney representative may learn sooner in the process which ALJ has been assigned to your case, however.

In general, how many individuals get denied by judges at disability hearings? Roughly half, and, likewise, roughly half are approved.

And the odds are better for individuals who actually show up at hearings with representation. This is for a number of reasons, not least of which is that a case will actually be prepared, versus a claimant who just shows up, having done zero preparation for their hearing.




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