How Social Security Administration Appeals Fare in the Federal Trial Courts

University Of Georgia Research Foundation Inc, Athens GA

Investigators

Abstract

With a million case backlog, an average hearing wait time over one year, and nearly 20 million disabled people receiving approximately $200 billion in benefits each year, the Social Security Administration (SSA) disability adjudication process is one of the nation's most prominent policy dilemmas. Despite a standard of judicial review favorable to the agency, as many as 50 percent of the SSA's disability determinations reviewed by the federal district courts are reversed or remanded to the SSA for additional proceedings and, frequently, a disability benefits award. This project examines why this reversal and remand rate is so high. This project will collect, analyze, and make publicly available an original dataset on SSA disability adjudications brought in federal trial courts between 1997 and 2014. The resulting data and qualitative and statistical analyses will focus on the case outcomes in the district courts, the reasons district judges give for their decisions, and the factors that might affect judicial behavior. These factors may include judge characteristics, case and individual claimant specifics, legal precedent, the political and economic environments surrounding a case, SSA efforts to improve adjudication quality, and the judicial hierarchy. The project will provide direct insight into the district court litigation process.