JUDGES HAVE VARYING APPROVAL RATES

"Some judges pay 90 percent of the cases they hear while others only pay 10 percent."

Administrative Law Judges have the final say about who gets paid for Social Security disability. Yet, some judges pay 95 percent of cases they hear while other judges only pay 10 percent. It's the luck of the draw.

In the US in 2022 Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) heard a total of 321,831 Social Security cases. They issued 107,000 total approvals.

The highest approval rate of any individual judge was 97 percent. The lowest was 10 percent.

In Alabama, the lowest approval rate of any judge is 18 percent. Pray you don't get this judge. According to her, only 18 out of 100 claimants are really disabled.

Of the 107,000 Social Security disability approvals in the country (2022), most of them were represented by lawyers or professional advocates. The approval rate for those who showed up without a lawyer was shockingly low, in fact about about two-thirds lower.

You may wait 2 or 3 years to get before a judge with your denied claim. Then you may get an outlier judge who either doesn't believe in Social Security disability or who just doesn't believe that anyone is disabled.