My husband has Osteonecrosis (AVN), it is death of bone condition in both shoulders and both hips.  We initially hired an attorney in April 2003, claim was denied and it is in the Hearing Stage in Virginia.  We had to reopen a new claim in 2006.  We attached all information needed, even information from the National Assn of Osteonecrosis (this is a relatively new condition).  The claim filed in 2006 was denied once, but to date no other information.  We just called our attorneys office this week.  They are constantly saying in both claims "things are the same", nothing has changed.  Can you please help us?  Our medical bills are piling up. Prescriptions are expensive, etc.
–D

Jonathan Ginsberg responds:  D, there is no simple answer to your question.  It appears that you have two claims in process – an appeal to the Appeals Council (the Appeals Council is located in Falls Church, VA, which is what I assume you mean by "the Hearing Stage in Virginia") and a 2006 claim filed in Georgia, where you now live.

Claim #1 will cover the time period from alleged onset through the date of the first administrative law judge hearing and Claim #2 will cover the time period from the day after your administrative law judge hearing and on-going.

Here are a couple of observations:

1)  Social Security claims take a long time.  The two Atlanta hearing offices are the slowest in the country – it can take two years or longer between the time you request a hearing and the time a hearing is scheduled.  Your attorney has no control over this.  It is not fair, it is not right, but this the current situation in the Social Security Administration.

Let me also say that there is an effort by SSA to deal with these delays – they are increasingly using video hearings from a National Hearing Center to reduce the backlog – see this press release from SSA.

2) With regard to the case at the Appeals Council.  If you have a case at the Appeals Council or in Federal Court, expect to wait and wait and wait.  You could be looking at five years or longer.  Recognize that at the Appeals Counsel or federal court, the judges are looking at possible errors of law or analysis by the hearing judge.  Appellate judge rarely substitute their decision for the decision of the ALJ.  Instead, they are looking for situations where the hearing judge used the wrong standard or the wrong analysis.  Usually a successful appeal concludes with the appellate judge sending the case back to the ALJ for a new hearing to be decided under the correct standard.

3) My guess is that your claim #2 will be decided much sooner than claim #1 and that any money to be paid will be paid in claim #2 long before payment in claim #1.