Social Security announced near the end of April that the agency would continue to conduct disability hearings via phone and no in-person hearings would be allowed at Social Security offices through August 2020. This is not a complete surprise as Social Security has been conducting phone only hearings in April, May and it was expected to continue into June and July, but now the official word is that only phone hearings are permitted through August.
Considering the option to have an in-person hearing at a Social Security hearings office is now off the table for the next four months there are really only two options for claimants who have hearings scheduled during this time. The options are to proceed with a phone hearing, this would require all parties, the claimant, the representative, the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) and experts scheduled for the hearing to appear remotely by phone. The only other option, which is not an appealing one, is for the claimant to request a postponement for the hearing to be rescheduled when in-person hearings continue. The problem with this option is that extra delays are expected. There surely will be thousands and thousands of hearings that will need to be rescheduled due to postponement which will result in a long time passing before these hearings are rescheduled.
The following information was sent out to attorneys and claimant representatives by Social Security.
We would like to inform you that we are scheduling telephonic hearings only through the month of August due to COVID-19 related concerns. Furthermore, our schedulers will now need confirmation first if a claimant (or their representative acting on his/her behalf) voluntarily accepts a telephone hearing before scheduling and releasing any notice of hearing for the months of July and August.
Our schedulers will also need confirmation if your claimant decides instead they decline a telephonic hearing so that we may proceed with postponing their case if it was previously scheduled for July, and/or refrain from scheduling their case for August, or until in-person hearings resume.
