Data Methodology
Transparency in how we source, process, and present ALJ statistics.
Data Sources
All statistics on this site are derived from official Social Security Administration (SSA) public datasets. The SSA publishes this data monthly on their Public Use Files page.
Seven SSA Datasets
| Dataset | Description | Key Metrics |
|---|---|---|
| NetStat Report | Wait times by hearing office | Average months until hearing held |
| HO Workload Data | Hearing office workload | Pending cases, receipts, dispositions, processing time |
| ALJ Disposition Data | Individual judge statistics | Awards, denials, fully/partially favorable |
| Dispositions Per Day | Office productivity rankings | Dispositions per day per ALJ |
| Processing Time | Office speed rankings | Average processing time in days |
| Appeals Council | AC workload statistics | Requests for review, dispositions, pending |
| Federal Court Cases | Court case statistics | New filings, dispositions, pending |
Calculation Methods
Approval Rate
The approval rate represents the percentage of decided cases that resulted in a favorable outcome for the claimant.
Where Total Awards = Fully Favorable + Partially Favorable decisions.
Denial Rate
The percentage of decided cases where benefits were denied.
Dismissal Rate
Dismissals occur when cases are closed without a decision on the merits (e.g., claimant withdrew, claimant deceased, etc.).
Fully Favorable vs. Partially Favorable
Fully Favorable
Claimant awarded benefits from their alleged onset date
Partially Favorable
Claimant awarded benefits but with a later onset date than alleged
Office and State Averages
Office averages are calculated as the mean approval rate of all judges at that office. State averages are the mean of all offices in that state.
Data Limitations
Important Caveats
- Statistics reflect aggregate outcomes and cannot predict individual case results
- Data does not account for case complexity, claimant demographics, or representation quality
- Some judges handle specialized dockets (e.g., mental health) that may affect statistics
- Part-time judges or those with administrative duties may have fewer dispositions
- Judges may be reassigned between offices during the reporting period, and a judge's figures cover every office they sat in
Which judges are included
Rankings, listings and the comparison tool include judges who decided 50 or more cases in the 12 months ending July 2026. The threshold filters out judges who were newly appointed, on extended leave, or transferred part-way through the period, whose rates would otherwise rest on a handful of cases. Tables labelled "top" or "highest" use a higher bar of 100 decisions.
A judge's own page stays published even after they fall below the threshold, so a link to it keeps working. Any judge who has cleared 50 decisions in a trailing 12-month window at any point in our data has a page.
Because of that, a judge's own page is reported on that judge's own window: the 12 months ending in the last month SSA recorded decisions for them. For a sitting judge that is the 12 months ending July 2026, the same period as everything else on this site. For a judge who has stopped hearing cases it is their final 12 working months, and the page says so and gives the cutoff month. The national average shown next to their figures is measured over the same months, so the two are comparable; the approval rate chart on each page covers the judge's whole record.
Everything comparative — rankings, listings, the comparison tool, office and state averages, and national figures — stays on the single 12 months ending July 2026 window for every judge, so no two judges are ever ranked against each other over different months. Judges with no decisions in that window are left out of those comparisons, and appear on their hearing office's page under former judges.
Update Frequency
SSA publishes updated figures monthly, roughly six weeks after the month they cover, so the July file appears in late August. We reload within a week of each release.
Rather than reporting on a single fiscal year, this site reports on a trailing window of the most recent 12 months. A fiscal year is only complete once SSA publishes its final file in November, so a fiscal-year view spends most of the year either showing a partial year against a full one or sitting a year out of date. A trailing window always covers the same span, includes every seasonal effect exactly once, and moves forward with each release.
Current data: the 12 months ending July 2026. Completed fiscal years remain available on the trends page.
Data License
SSA datasets are published under CC0 (Public Domain). This site's presentation and analysis of the data is copyrighted by Chronicle.
Contact
For questions about our methodology or to report data issues, contact us at support@chroniclelegal.com.