This page provides a discussion of the second step in the social security disability (and SSI) appeal process. This is the disability hearing, more formally known as the request for hearing before an administrative law judge.

Disability hearings are where the majority of applicants will have their most favorable opportunity for being approved, assuming they have been previously denied at the initial claim level. I say this because claimants who are denied on a disability application are typically denied at an even higher rate on the first appeal, the request for reconsideration.

Reconsideration appeals are handled by the same state disability processing agency that renders the initial disability determination. This agency is usually known as DDS, or disability determination services. Why is DDS so apt to turn down a claim on the first appeal? The answer may be as simple as this: because DDS is handling the claim again. After all, it would throw a strange light on the validity of the disability evaluation process if claims could be routinely denied at the application level and then approved several weeks later on a reconsideration appeal. Reconsiderations are likely to be denied because they are handled by the same agency. The fact that a different disability examiner handles the reconsideration versus the initial application seems to make little difference in the outcome of a case on this first appeal.

Hearings, however, are different. Disability judges are not state employees who answer to immediate supervisors. They function autonomously and also recognize, far more often than disability examiners, the primacy of the opinion of a claimant’s doctor, a.k.a. the claimant’s treating physician.

This post also details several tips for those who are scheduled to appear before an administrative law judge at a hearing.

If you file for disability benefits from the social security adminstration and get denied, there’s more than a fair chance that, at some point, you’ll have to go to a disability hearing.

Disability hearings are generally where most claimants will choose to seek representation (going to a hearing held by a federal judge and being unrepresented is never a good idea) simply because it maximizes the chances of being awarded disability benefits. Unfortunately, the disability hearing, which is the second appeal level in the SSA disability system, takes quite a long time to get to.

Whereas a disability application can usually be decided in a matter of months, and the first appeal (the request for reconsideration) can usually be decided in an even shorter time, the social security disability hearing, or SSI disability hearing, can two up to two years simply to get scheduled. For this reason, claimants may wish to think carefully about a number of issues that are related to the hearing process. The main issue, of course, is representation. However, another issue is whether or not to accept a video hearing (note: claimants can refuse to have their hearing held by video and may insist on an in-person hearing).