You have endured the initial disability application process, as well as the Reconsideration appeal, and now you have submitted your request for a hearing as your second appeal. With all of the preparation is takes to get ready for the hearing, you may not even notice that you do not even have a hearing date yet. In fact, from the time a request for a hearing is submitted to the time that a hearing date is set can be a year or more.
How long this process takes is largely affected by where you live. Some regional offices are more adept at moving the hearing requests along and not allowing them to pile up. Other offices have more efficient organizational procedures in place to help the file get from the office to an ALJ’s desk. Some localities simply have more claimants seeking a hearing, which results in a large backlog.
There is little that a claimant can do to speed up the process, other than wait and prepare the case. A claimant’s representative may contact the hearing office to check on the status of the request and usually, should call the office soon after filing the request in order to make sure that it was received. Contacting the hearing office numerous times, however, will not speed up the process and will likely cause some discontent in those handling your file, which is not recommended.
Although it is difficult to wait for a hearing to be set, it does provide you with valuable time to prepare your case and make certain that all medical records are present. Additionally, many offices are trying to implement electronic procedures to reduce some of the backlog. No matter how long it takes, do not give up your fight for your disability benefits, rather make your case as strong as possible in the interim.