Most overturned social security judges in Oregon

Letter to the Oregonian newspaper by appeals lawyer;

 For the appellate attorneys among us, Madden clearly is our favorite among those ALJs currently employed in Oregon, with Atkins, Hyatt, Lazuran, and Say struggling to keep those court cases coming.  (Appeals lawyers love judges who get overturned a lot)  (Madden, Atkins, Hyatt, Lazuran and Say are the most overturned social security judges in Oregon)

Which judge denies the most claims

 (Editor's Note: Judges are assigned cases on a rotation basis and therefore all the case pool is the same.  Some judges deny more people than not. Other people grant benefits more often than not; all with the same pool.  You are either lucky or unlucky when you are assigned an ALJ) 

 

• Madden has the highest denial rate of any ALJ still employed in Oregon (51% in 2008), and

• Atkins has the highest denial rate of any current Portland ALJ (39% in 2008).

• Ralph Jones went out with a bang and posted the record for the highest percentage of denials anywhere in the state (a whopping 62% in 2008--even Schloss can't approach that!),

On the other end of the scale, Neither of

• the Elliotts (Joel Elliott or Gary Elliott) posted more than 16% denials in any year covered by these stats,

• and Evans and Mauer are right there with that same 16% cap. 

• Mauer holds the record for the least denials, with a paltry 8% in 2005 and a 4-year average of just 13.6% denials.

Trends by Portland, Eugene Social Security Administrative Law Judges
 

• In terms of trends, Haack seems to be getting more denial-prone (denying more claims-more than twice as many denials in 2008 as in any prior year), and

• Hyatt also has set a new personal record in 2008 for the most denials in any year covered by these stats.

• Atkins is trending worse in 2008 (39% denials) after three years solidly entrenched in mid-twenties territory.

• Lazuran may be getting worse, although her numbers are too close to call for sure. 

• Social Security Judge Say probably is getting worse.

• Kingrey steadily stayed awful until she retired. In a possible attempt to counterbalance Kingrey's rampant denials,

• Mauer played Santa Claus for a couple years before tightening up only a tad

• The new ALJ Wilborn in Eugene is rumored to be pretty pay-happy, although his stats don't show up yet

 
  Stop goofing off, stop going off on "frolics of your own" AND do your duty and work!

(Editor's note; ALJs are hired to determine if claimants are disabled.  They are not hired to discipline or comment on how attorneys practice law, etc.  But many of them waste time doing so to the detriment of the desperate and sometimes homeless claimants.  Attorney Dan Bernath has had 12 clients died waiting for a hearing and attorney Sly has been quoted as saying that 15 of his clients have died waiting for the ALJs to do their duty.  The Portland ALJs are not coming any where near doing their duty to hold the minimum of 500 cases a year and the goal of each ALJ clearing 700 cases per year.)

In terms of production, Haack and Lazuran are the worst in getting the job done(4-year averages of 257 and 275 annual decisions, respectively), producing just barely over half of what SSA considers to be the minimal production target for ALJs (500 decisions per year to 700 decisions).  (Note that the 2008 numbers are not complete, so these are a little bit below what their complete stats will show once the numbers are in.  Also, I'm not counting Joel Elliott because as union rep, he's expected to work less than 1/2 of the time as a decisionmaker.)  Portland's most productive ALJ is Atkins, with a 443 average--still falling far short of the agency's stated minimum goal of 500 cases per ALJ per year.)

 Interestingly, the only two ALJs in the entire state who made the agency's minimum 500-case annual goal are Eugene ALJs Gary Elliott (590 per year average) and Mauer (563 per year average).  There surely are some who would accuse these two ALJs of "paying down the backlog" to get out those high numbers.  In counterbalance, Kingrey dragged down the Eugene office production with just 284 decisions per year, and Madden was barely higher, with 305.  Horton staked out the middle ground with 340 and Haack with just 257 decisions and Lazuran with just 275 decisions are the worst in getting the job done for these desperate, homeless and dying claimants.

 
/s/ appellate lawyer whom all Oregon social security lawyers know and love

(The interesting thing about the Oregonian article is that the agency finally coughed up the pay/deny data on individual ALJs.

 A few years ago, DL obtained this same type of data via a FOIA request, but the agency tried to play games with him by giving code numbers to the ALJs instead of using their names.  We reps sat around and decoded the codes (mostly by techniques such as "this ALJ came [or left] in [year] and is a [high/medium/low] producer with [high/medium/low] pay rates").  I believe we successfully decoded every single ALJ listed in the stats David obtained.  This time, the agency does not even attempt to disguise who the individual ALJs are.

 For the convenience of the viewing public, the stats are attached in PDF file format http://www.oregonlive.com/special/index.ssf/2008/12/social_security_database.html . There are no stats for ALJs Montano (in Portland) or Ralph Wilborn (in Eugene), as both are too new to have a record.)