Despite the best efforts of the Social Security Administration, it still takes a long time to get a hearing in front of an administrative law judge.
Many of my clients wait more than two years from starting an application to get to that point.
So, they’re understandably frustrated when they’re forced to have a second hearing, or even a third or fourth hearing in some rare instances.
There are many reasons that this happens. Sometimes, it’s a technical issue. A hearing may not have been clearly recorded, or the vocational expert who was scheduled to testify dropped off the call and couldn’t reconnect.
In those cases, hearings can be rescheduled quickly.
Often, it just comes down to the judge you draw and how they view the case. Social Security judges have broad discretion in how they make their decisions.
It’s not uncommon for one judge to easily approve a case with little medical evidence or a past work issue that another judge will hold up for months and require a second hearing.
In situations like that, all we can do is gather whatever evidence the judge requires. That may mean requesting records that are years old, tracking down pay stubs, or getting a letter from a previous employer.
In some cases, the judge will hold a second hearing to have a medical expert testify, or they’ll want to see the results of an exam that Social Security schedules.
The good news is that these delays are usually to the benefit of the claimant. The judge just wants to have enough evidence to back up a favorable decision. And backpay does keep accumulating during that period of time.
But unfortunately, it also means an already lengthy process gets dragged out even longer.
