Doing research on Administrative Law Judges for the SSA
July 19, 2021 1:28 AM Subscribe
Where can I find numbers that show the number of depositions, decisions, denials, awards, dismissals, and reversed and or vacated cases of administrative law judges? Looking to find stats comparing those judges in different courts across the country.
The SSA publishes ALJ Disposition Data with judge, office, total dispositions for that judge in that office, total dispositions across all offices, and the number of decisions, awards, denials, fully favorable decisions, and partially favorable decisions.
If you go to Archived Data Files and select prior fiscal years you can find historical disposition data.
Unfortunately the principal data format is XML rather than CSV, so it may take some processing work to put it in a more useful format for statistical analysis.
posted by jedicus at 7:53 AM on July 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
If you go to Archived Data Files and select prior fiscal years you can find historical disposition data.
Unfortunately the principal data format is XML rather than CSV, so it may take some processing work to put it in a more useful format for statistical analysis.
posted by jedicus at 7:53 AM on July 19, 2021 [4 favorites]
Jedicus (above) is entirely correct. If the information concerning depositions (not aware that this is a thing and, if done, pretty certain not collected in any one place), reversals, and vacated cases is important, you will have a much more difficult time tracking that down, since it's not part of the database mentioned. The US attorney for the region might be able (but probably not willing) to help on those questions. If what you are looking for is an indication of an ALJ's approach, the database will certainly give you a good indication whether there is a tilt one way or the other.
posted by bullatony at 8:23 AM on July 19, 2021
posted by bullatony at 8:23 AM on July 19, 2021
The US attorney for the region might be able (but probably not willing) to help on those questions.
ALJs are SSA employees, not DOJ (though local offices handle appeals to federal district court), so I doubt DOJ keeps track.
If you're interested in a particular ALJ, by searching their name, you should be able to use Google Scholar to get a rough idea of cases appealed to the federal courts and the outcomes (in conjunction with the number of determinations from jedicus's link, though many cases will last more than a year so annual numbers will be inaccurate). The district court decision conventionally will give the name of the ALJ whose decision is being appealed from. This would be annoying to do for a larger group of judges. It's possible some legal scholar has had their research assistants do it for some period of time/geographical area, so I would try checking Hein Online.
I'm not aware of depositions being taken in SSI/SSDI cases (the claimant and various experts normally testify at the hearing), but my knowledge is not comprehensive.
posted by praemunire at 9:45 AM on July 19, 2021
ALJs are SSA employees, not DOJ (though local offices handle appeals to federal district court), so I doubt DOJ keeps track.
If you're interested in a particular ALJ, by searching their name, you should be able to use Google Scholar to get a rough idea of cases appealed to the federal courts and the outcomes (in conjunction with the number of determinations from jedicus's link, though many cases will last more than a year so annual numbers will be inaccurate). The district court decision conventionally will give the name of the ALJ whose decision is being appealed from. This would be annoying to do for a larger group of judges. It's possible some legal scholar has had their research assistants do it for some period of time/geographical area, so I would try checking Hein Online.
I'm not aware of depositions being taken in SSI/SSDI cases (the claimant and various experts normally testify at the hearing), but my knowledge is not comprehensive.
posted by praemunire at 9:45 AM on July 19, 2021
I'm going to follow up by noting that the DOJ is the agency that defends the SSA when the Commissioner's decision is appealed to court. The attorneys who do that defending are guided, in part, by their familiarity with the ALJ issuing the decision; some ALJs are notorious for failing to follow rules and precedent, and the US attorney with the case is therefore more willing to adopt a reasonable position. The DOJ would know cases filed and outcomes. Again, the question is whether this information would be shared, and the answer is "pretty unlikely."
A Google Scholar search would probably not be helpful. The ALJ's name is frequently not mentioned in the court's decision - I've done scores of these cases, and I'd say the name appears probably one-third of the time - so you would have an enormous catchall group of decisions with unidentified ALJs. If your aim is to have a comprehensive accounting of outcomes, identified by ALJ, this is not the way to go.
Of course, the SSA itself knows very well all the information that you are interested in, but good luck in prying it out!
posted by bullatony at 11:32 AM on July 19, 2021
A Google Scholar search would probably not be helpful. The ALJ's name is frequently not mentioned in the court's decision - I've done scores of these cases, and I'd say the name appears probably one-third of the time - so you would have an enormous catchall group of decisions with unidentified ALJs. If your aim is to have a comprehensive accounting of outcomes, identified by ALJ, this is not the way to go.
Of course, the SSA itself knows very well all the information that you are interested in, but good luck in prying it out!
posted by bullatony at 11:32 AM on July 19, 2021
I'm sure that there is informal discussion/office lore around which ALJs churn out the worst decisions (though you're very optimistic in thinking that would have meaningful impact beyond the margins on how they defend cases--even putting aside institutional bias, SSA is the client), but that they would compile formal statistics implies more work than an office is likely to undertake for something that won't directly affect outcomes and might make the office look bad. (I would frown on even discussing particularly lousy ALJs in email.) In either case, though, you're right that they wouldn't be shared.
We always put in the ALJ's name, but I believe you if you tell me that some districts have lower standards. If OP is interested in appeals stats by locality rather than by judge, though, the hearing office service areas are geographic and presumably overlap with one or maybe two district courts, and ALJs are assigned to one hearing office. So any given district court's docket of cases should reflect the work of a modest number of geographically clustered hearing offices.
If you are interested in district court-by-district court comparisons, you could search appeals for any given district court via PACER, as it's possible to search by "nature of case" to pull only Social Security cases. Then you could compile outcomes case-by-case. (It even appears that someone may be publishing the appropriate search-by-code results here, though I haven't tested it. You would have to get the actual docket sheets separately, though.) For most district courts, though, that will necessarily pull in multiple hearing offices' work. You could compare "cases where the claimant lives in Massachusetts" to "cases where the claimant lives in Arizona" (ordinarily the claimant files where they live), but not "cases where the claimant lives in Newton, MA" to "cases where the claimant lives in Lynn, MA" (or, what would be the most interesting case to me, a city where the population is predominantly poor to middle class and white vs. a city where the population is Black).
All these stats should be FOIAble from SSA, but it would presumably take a verrrrrrrrry long time.
posted by praemunire at 12:43 PM on July 19, 2021
We always put in the ALJ's name, but I believe you if you tell me that some districts have lower standards. If OP is interested in appeals stats by locality rather than by judge, though, the hearing office service areas are geographic and presumably overlap with one or maybe two district courts, and ALJs are assigned to one hearing office. So any given district court's docket of cases should reflect the work of a modest number of geographically clustered hearing offices.
If you are interested in district court-by-district court comparisons, you could search appeals for any given district court via PACER, as it's possible to search by "nature of case" to pull only Social Security cases. Then you could compile outcomes case-by-case. (It even appears that someone may be publishing the appropriate search-by-code results here, though I haven't tested it. You would have to get the actual docket sheets separately, though.) For most district courts, though, that will necessarily pull in multiple hearing offices' work. You could compare "cases where the claimant lives in Massachusetts" to "cases where the claimant lives in Arizona" (ordinarily the claimant files where they live), but not "cases where the claimant lives in Newton, MA" to "cases where the claimant lives in Lynn, MA" (or, what would be the most interesting case to me, a city where the population is predominantly poor to middle class and white vs. a city where the population is Black).
All these stats should be FOIAble from SSA, but it would presumably take a verrrrrrrrry long time.
posted by praemunire at 12:43 PM on July 19, 2021
OARO is the appeals board that reviews individual OHO ALJ decisions. In addition to the data Jedicus points to, you will need to analyze OARO data to find out about post-decicion actions on a case. Challenging agency decisions in federal district court is hard and expensive, so federal court data (not DOJ, they would be the defense attorney for the govt.) carries specific connotations. Most decisions will go through the tiered agency review process only.
I recommend reaching out to practicing SS attorneys in your area, or if you have a local law school, reaching out to a professor teaching SSA courses (less common) or administrative law (common). Practicing attorneys are the ones arguing these appeals and will have good insight into agency practice. Law profs do research like what you propose and should be able to point you to existing research, active projects, and provide context to help you actually analyze your data effectively.
posted by ailouros08 at 5:06 AM on July 21, 2021
I recommend reaching out to practicing SS attorneys in your area, or if you have a local law school, reaching out to a professor teaching SSA courses (less common) or administrative law (common). Practicing attorneys are the ones arguing these appeals and will have good insight into agency practice. Law profs do research like what you propose and should be able to point you to existing research, active projects, and provide context to help you actually analyze your data effectively.
posted by ailouros08 at 5:06 AM on July 21, 2021
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posted by dpx.mfx at 7:01 AM on July 19, 2021