Atlanta Social Security Disability Claims and Hearings

In Atlanta, Social Security disability hearings will be held at either the downtown Atlanta Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) on Forsyth Street, or the Atlanta North ODAR on Clairmont Road.  Claimants from downtown or in south metro Atlanta generally appear at the downtown office, and claimants from the northern suburbs (Gwinnett, Cobb, Forsyth) will appear at the Atlanta North office.

Most of the Social Security disability judges in the Atlanta area are experienced hearing officials and most of them have been judges in the Atlanta and Atlanta North hearing offices for several years.  You can expect to receive a fair hearing if your case is heard in either of these offices.

Nowadays, both the Atlanta and the Atlanta North hearing offices are overwhelmed with thousands of backlogged cases due to an inadequate number of workers and a recent proliferation of disability claims.  The federal government’s 2007 report reveals that the Atlanta ODAR and the Atlanta North ODAR have the longest waiting times in the country!

In the Spring of 2006, several hundred cases of both the Atlanta hearing offices had been sent to Administrative Law Judges of other States, including California, Arizona, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.  At that time, judges of other states handled the cases of Atlanta claimants either live or by video tele-conference.

As you know that currently Atlanta hearing offices are under staffed, you and your counsel should be aware of the following:

• ODAR staff will find difficulty in numbering the exhibit lists and in putting files together carefully. Due to shortage of staff, documents mailed or faxed to the hearing offices can be misplaced and cannot be found when required. Therefore, we suggest you to keep copies of whatever you mail and ask them to give you receipts of all documents.
• As I said earlier, ODAR staff is not equipped to update medical, vocational or education records, so you (the claimant) and your attorney will be responsible for updating the exhibit files after your hearing request has been filed.  Since the hearing can be delayed for 2-3 years, you and your counsel have to provide updates regularly.
• You and your counsel should appear with a complete file during the hearing. If your documents are not complete, your case can be delayed for months or years and when the judge sits down to review the file he won’t remember you.  You are much better off making the judge’s life easy in the Atlanta Social Security hearing offices.

Despite of the long delays in the Atlanta hearing offices, you can definitely pursue your disability claim if you have a legitimate case.  Visit your doctor regularly and maintain a good relationship with him/her and ask for his or her help in completing forms for your lawyer.