Atlanta North Judge Gets Raw Deal from Social Security Administration

[Guest guest]

June 21, 2008

Atlanta North Judge Gets Raw Deal from Social Security Administration

http://www.ssdanswers.com/

Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution printed a front page article

entitled Ruling: Judge Slighted Duties. The article reports the

finding of an administrative law judge that Atlanta North ALJ

Jennings can be removed from his position as an ALJ because he

simultaneously served as an active duty lawyer for the Army.

In addition to firing Judge Jennings, Social Security is also going

to attempt to collect over $300,000 in back pay. The ALJ considering

this case concluded that because he was working for the army, Judge

Jennings was not able to give his Social Security cases his full

attention, thus contributing to the backlog in the Atlanta North

office.

Excuse my use of the vernacular here, but this ruling against Judge

Jennings is a load of crap. First and foremost, I find it incredible

that any trier of fact would attempt to blame the Atlanta North

backlog on one judge. The problem in Atlanta North does not lie at

the feet of the judges; instead, the problem has to do with the lack

of staff and Social Security's slow embrace of technology. Judges

are part of the puzzle, to be sure, but if the case files are not put

together, if the hearings are not scheduled, if there are not enough

writers to prepare draft decisions, and if thousands upon thousands

of claims are being filed, there are going to be delays.

I try cases in the downtown Atlanta hearing office, as well as in

Rome, Columbus, Macon and Savannah. The Atlanta North office has

been the slowest in adopting the paperless exhibit files (exhibits

are on CD) the paper files that we do use are usually not numbered or

properly prepared for hearings. If Judge Jennings was able to

process 10x as many cases as he did, none of this would change.

Nothing in the AJC article suggested that Judge Jennings rate of

productivity was any less than any of his colleagues.

I also wonder if the ALJ considering this issue took the time to

speak to any of the lawyers that appeared before Judge Jennings. In

my experience, Judge Jennings was always prepared for hearings and

his processing time for issuing decisions was no different than any

of the other Atlanta North judges. As an aside, Judge Jennings was

considered to be more on the conservative side when it came to

approving cases, so I am not writing this out of self interest.

However, he was never arbitrary and his approach was always

consistent, meaning that going in to a case I pretty much knew what I

needed to present my case. In cases that he granted, Judge Jennings

would frequently include specific direction to Social Security to

review a claim in two or three years. I think he felt a

responsibility to the taxpayers to insure that anyone who would be

collecting benefits truly deserved them.

Finally, as noted above, Judge Jennings " other " job was as a lawyer

for the Army. This was known to everyone at Atlanta North - I

remember one occasion in particular, when Judge Jennings had to

postpone hearings because he had an active duty deployment. Here,

then, we have an individual serving his country in a time of war who

is being unfairly singed out as the reason for a backlog problem that

is, in truth, the result of widespread and systematic inefficiency.