Since 1995 Social Security has employed attorney advisors who have been allowed to approve Social Security disability cases “when the documentary record clearly establishes that a fully favorable decision is warranted to issue fully favorable decisions before a hearing is conducted.”
Although this pilot program has been in existence since 1995 it has always been considered temporary and it has gone away and been reinstated from time-to-time, but now the program is permanent as directed by a published notice in the Federal Register.
This is an important program because it allows some case that are waiting for a disability hearing to be approved without the need to schedule a hearing, providing some relief to the massive hearing backlog. Previously, the program was set to expire in February of 2018, but it was extended until August and will now be permanent.
In the notice issued, Social Security agreed that attorney advisors are important tools to help tackle the massive hearing backlog. The program “has proved to be an integral tool in providing timely decisions to the public while maximizing the use of our Administrative Law Judges (ALJs),” the notice said.
Despite the fact that most disability advocates support a permanent attorney advisor program, there is still some criticism of how the attorney advisors are under utilized. Few decisions are issued by attorney advisors due to limits and restrictions on what attorney advisors can do. Some attorney advisors have been tapped to write decisions for ALJs to reduce the backlog of case where hearings have been held and there have not been sufficient support staff to write decisions, but this has not reduced the backlog. If restrictions are lifted and attorney advisors are given more opportunities to rule on cases we might see some significant movement in the hearing backlog.
