How Social Security Administration Appeals Fare in the Federal Trial Courts

由于积压了100万个案件，平均听证等待时间超过一年，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)的残疾裁决程序是美国最突出的政策困境之一。尽管司法审查的标准对该机构有利，但经联邦地区法院审查的SSA的残疾裁决中，多达50%被推翻或发回SSA，要求进行额外的诉讼程序，并经常获得残疾津贴裁决。这个项目调查了为什么这种撤销和还押率如此之高。该项目将收集、分析并公开1997至2014年间在联邦初审法院提起的SSA残疾裁决的原始数据集。由此产生的数据以及定性和统计分析将集中在地区法院的案件结果、地区法官对其裁决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特征、案件和个人索赔人的具体情况、法律先例、案件周围的政治和经济环境、特别服务协议为提高裁决质量所做的努力，以及司法等级。该项目将为区域法院的诉讼过程提供直接的见解。

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.