Over the past few years, Social Security has quietly made available to the public statistics about the performance of hearing offices throughout the nation as well as the approval/denial rates of the judges that staff those offices.
These statistics are on the official SSA.gov site but I have noted that the location of this information seems to change periodically.
Recently I came across a very interesting and helpful site called DisabilityJudges.com where information about the tendencies of the judges before whom you will appear are posted. Here is a link to the subsection about Georgia hearing offices.
Nationally, the average approval rate for Social Security judges is 53%, the denial rate is 32% with the rest being dismissed or disposed of otherwise. In Georgia, the average approval rate is 60% and the denial rate is 28%.
Interestingly, however, you may get a very different result depending on which hearing office schedules your hearing. Around 63% of hearing scheduled in downtown Atlanta are approved but your odds could vary greatly depending on the judge assigned to your claim. Judges with the lowest approval rate in downtown Atlanta approve just over 30% of claims brought before them, while a claimant in the next hearing room over could appear before a judge with an 82% approval rate.
Unfortunately there is no way to choose the judge that will hear your case and I’d like to think that even the judges with the stingiest approval rate will approve a deserving claim.