Category Archives: Social Security Disability

Are Social Security Disability Judges awarding too many or too few disability claims? According to an article on the Social Security disability system by Damian Paletta in the Wall Street Journal today, that will be the subject of an independent review of the federal disability system by the Administrative Conference of the United States focusing on the work of Social Security Administrative Law Judges (ALJ’s). class action lawsuit was filed against five Social Security ALJ’s claiming anti-claimant bias in the Queens New York Office of Adjudication and Review. Read my affidavit that was submitted to the federal court regarding the abuses of Social Security Queens Chief Judge David Z. Nisnewitz and ALJ Seymour Fier here.
On the other equally bad end of the spectrum is the case of West Virginia Social Security ALJ David B. Daugherty, who apparently never met a claimant who was not disabled. Unlike his brethren in Queens, New York, he was suspended for his outstandingly high allowance rate, and eventually retired. The “Queens 5” continue to hear cases. I guess granting cases is a more serious offense at Social Security than bullying and intimidating claimants, which was the M.O. for the Chief ALJ Nisnewitz in Queens. Either way, both examples of these “outliers” should be purged from the system.