How Social Security Administration Appeals Fare in the Federal Trial Courts

有一百万个案件积压，平均听证会等待时间超过一年，近2000万残疾人每年获得约2000亿美元的福利，社会保障管理局（SSA）的残疾裁决过程是全国最突出的政策困境之一。尽管司法审查的标准有利于该机构，多达50%的社会保障部的残疾决定审查的联邦地区法院被推翻或发回社会保障部的额外程序，并经常，残疾福利金的裁决。 本项目探讨了为什么这种逆转和还押率如此之高。 该项目将收集、分析并公开一个关于1997年至2014年期间联邦审判法院做出的SSA残疾裁决的原始数据集。由此产生的数据和定性和统计分析将集中在地区法院的案件结果，地区法官为他们的决定给出的理由，以及可能影响司法行为的因素。这些因素可能包括法官的特点，案件和个人索赔人的具体情况，法律的先例，政治和经济环境周围的案件，SSA努力提高裁决质量，和司法等级。该项目将提供对地区法院诉讼程序的直接了解。

With a million case backlog, an average hearing wait time over one year, and nearly 20 million disabled people receiving approximately $200 billion in benefits each year, the Social Security Administration (SSA) disability adjudication process is one of the nation's most prominent policy dilemmas. Despite a standard of judicial review favorable to the agency, as many as 50 percent of the SSA's disability determinations reviewed by the federal district courts are reversed or remanded to the SSA for additional proceedings and, frequently, a disability benefits award. This project examines why this reversal and remand rate is so high. This project will collect, analyze, and make publicly available an original dataset on SSA disability adjudications brought in federal trial courts between 1997 and 2014. The resulting data and qualitative and statistical analyses will focus on the case outcomes in the district courts, the reasons district judges give for their decisions, and the factors that might affect judicial behavior. These factors may include judge characteristics, case and individual claimant specifics, legal precedent, the political and economic environments surrounding a case, SSA efforts to improve adjudication quality, and the judicial hierarchy. The project will provide direct insight into the district court litigation process.