As most people know Social Security closed down offices in mid March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently Social Security has allowed field offices to open on a limited basis to service customers with “urgent” or “dire” needs on a limited basis as long as customers setup appointments ahead of time, but the hearings offices remain closed to the public.
A hearing on a Social Security matter is crucial for a Social Security disability claimant who is trying to obtain disability benefits. Since Social Security offices closed in March all Social Security disability hearings have been conducted by telephone. A typical Social Security disability hearing would be an in-person hearing and would include a judge, a vocational expert, the hearing monitor, and many times an attorney or other representative who has been hired to assist the claimant seek benefits, but now all of these hearings are by phone. The claimant, judge, attorney and expert all appear by phone on a conference call with each appearing from home. All parties, with the exception of the claimant have access to the claimant’s Social Security file and all the medical evidence, but the hearings are not conducted without some risk.
One of the main problems with phone hearings is the issue with technology. Most hearings are conducted without incident, but there are plenty of times technology fails and Social Security has trouble connecting all parties and the hearing is delayed. A hearing being delayed has its own problems as judges, attorneys and experts are all on schedules and rarely conduct just one hearing a day. If there is a delay in a hearing it can disrupt the entire day for the judge or the attorney, and depending on how long the delay is, it can result in a claimant’s hearing being postponed and rescheduled.
Obviously this is not an ideal situation in which to conduct hearings and all parties are doing the best they can, but some judges schedule hearings so close together that even a minor delay can result in a claimant’s hearing being postponed. Hopefully some judges will consider scheduling hearings further apart to help combat this problem.
