There are three hearing offices – called ODAR offices – in the Atlanta metro area and additional field offices serviced by the Atlanta judges located throughout north Georgia. Rome, Georgia hearings are heard by Chattanooga based judges. ODAR stands for Office of Disability and Review.
The Atlanta hearing offices are:
- ODAR Downtown
- ODAR North Atlanta
- ODAR Covington
Each of these offices has video equipment that judges use to appear by video in outlying field offices such as Macon or Columbus. Video equipment is also used by out of state judges to hear Atlanta cases when the backlog gets too big.
At this point you have the right to insist upon a live judge to hear your case. I personally have had good results with video hearings but some claimants and some lawyers much prefer live judges. This is an issue to discuss with your lawyer.
The approval/disapproval rates of every judge in the Atlanta area ODAR offices is available online. Here is a link to the Georgia page on the website DisabilityJudges.com. You will see that the average approval rate for Atlanta area hearings is around 48% (this is slightly higher than the national average of 44%). If you look at reports for individual judges however you will see that approval rates range from 14% at the low end to 70% at the high end.
I personally find this wide range disturbing. Two identical claimants would likely get different results solely based on which judge was assigned. This seems unfair to me, however, we don’t have any choice about the judge – they are assigned at random.
My approach remains to focus on preparing your case file properly and thoroughly, spend time with you before the hearing practicing and refining your testimony, and making my best argument at your hearing. I have won cases before even the most demanding judges so I work on controlling what I can control.
I continue to believe that your medical record will always be the most important factor considered by the judge so during the time you are waiting for your hearing you need to continue seeing your doctor and follow his or her medical advice.