Recent Social Security reports tout the hiring of 175 new administrative law judges. This will probably not do much for the backlog. 175 judges spread across the country will not mean that many more hearings based on the thousands of people waiting for a trial.
Another attempt to reduce the work load is doing video hearings from field offices that have a smaller work load. For instance, Arizona judges will start doing video hearings for the Danville, Illinois office. This may help out somewhat, but the bottom line is that more staff are needed in the field office to prepare the cases for hearing. This would result in the cases being ready sooner and would help spot cases that are deserving of an on the record decision.
Have questions for a Social Security disbability lawyer in Central Illinois? Give Dirk a call at 309-827-4371.