Welcome! This site is written for Social Security disability claimants, for their legal representatives, and for the network of people involved in the Social Security disability claim process. I hope you find it helpful.
Free Claim Review

There is remarkable article by Sean Collins-Smith and Brandon Shulleeta, published yesterday in the Virginia Lawyers Weekly, entitled Richmond ALJ hearing Social Security claims has one of the highest denial rates in the country.

The subject of the article is Drew A. Swank, a Social Security administrative law judge who decided more than 1,100 disability claims last year (the article appears to rely on the SSA's published stats for FY 2011). The judge denied 79% of claims outright, and issued "fully favorable" decisions just 6% of the time. That is not a typo. 6% of decisions were fully favorable to the claimant. 

I urge you to read the article.

If you do the math on 1,100 decisions during a work year, it is not pretty. A Social Security disability applicant, particularly one whose claim is denied, deserves more time from the judge deciding the case.

Furthermore, in my opinion, if you are denying 79% of disability claims, you are running roughshod over Social Security's own regulations about how to consider evidence in a disability claim.

Again, I urge you to read the article.