Currently there is a big political push to take Judicial Independence away from Administrative Law Judges (ALJ) in presiding over social security disability decisions.
Before you jump to conclusions, be aware that both sides can appeal an ALJ's decision but must prove an abuse of discretion. This allows the Judge independence from political, economic and cultural influences to approve or disprove a claim but still allows an appeal when its clear a Judge was out of line.
Also be aware that due to the complexity of such decisions, for better or for worse, you are going to have statistical differences between Judges who are fallible human beings no matter what you do. To think otherwise is to live in a fantasy. Some will be more conservative some will be more liberal.
The current argument is mostly based on the percentage of claims approved. Tell me what do the raw statistic indicate? Nothing--it bears no information about the merits of the cases at all, one way or another. And all the attention at the current moment is on those with the highest approval rates. What does it mean? Probably the chips are down economically for the country and nothing else. Yet, maybe it means that they are too easily bamboozled by a boob's sob story and some of the cases they approve that where iffy should have been denied--but you can't tell that by statistics.
But what about those with the lowest approval rates? What does that mean? Probably it means they are honestly more conservative regarding what they think others can do despite their health problems. Yet, maybe it means that they have little tiny hearts made out of dry ice and that some of the cases they disapprove of where iffy and should have been approved --but you can't tell that by statistics.
Who is right? How do you fix it if anything needs to be fixed?
For my part, while there are plenty of Judges who I think turn my cases down too much and I don't particularly agree with them, I would never want their independence taken away because although the system is imperfect, I know it would be worse when unknown, unseen and uncontrolled political forces were calling the shots.
"So, be careful what you wish for, history starts now." You don't want to be the person who is told, "Sorry, I turned you down because my percentages this month were too high."
Loren M. Lambert © December 27, 2013
Before you jump to conclusions, be aware that both sides can appeal an ALJ's decision but must prove an abuse of discretion. This allows the Judge independence from political, economic and cultural influences to approve or disprove a claim but still allows an appeal when its clear a Judge was out of line.
Also be aware that due to the complexity of such decisions, for better or for worse, you are going to have statistical differences between Judges who are fallible human beings no matter what you do. To think otherwise is to live in a fantasy. Some will be more conservative some will be more liberal.
The current argument is mostly based on the percentage of claims approved. Tell me what do the raw statistic indicate? Nothing--it bears no information about the merits of the cases at all, one way or another. And all the attention at the current moment is on those with the highest approval rates. What does it mean? Probably the chips are down economically for the country and nothing else. Yet, maybe it means that they are too easily bamboozled by a boob's sob story and some of the cases they approve that where iffy should have been denied--but you can't tell that by statistics.
But what about those with the lowest approval rates? What does that mean? Probably it means they are honestly more conservative regarding what they think others can do despite their health problems. Yet, maybe it means that they have little tiny hearts made out of dry ice and that some of the cases they disapprove of where iffy and should have been approved --but you can't tell that by statistics.
Who is right? How do you fix it if anything needs to be fixed?
For my part, while there are plenty of Judges who I think turn my cases down too much and I don't particularly agree with them, I would never want their independence taken away because although the system is imperfect, I know it would be worse when unknown, unseen and uncontrolled political forces were calling the shots.
"So, be careful what you wish for, history starts now." You don't want to be the person who is told, "Sorry, I turned you down because my percentages this month were too high."
Loren M. Lambert © December 27, 2013
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