San Rafael Hearing Office - ALJ Approval Rates & Wait Times

The San Rafael hearing office is part of the Social Security Administration's Office of Hearings Operations in California. This office is in SSA Region 09 and currently has 4 administrative law judges who hear disability appeals.

The office's average approval rate is 60.9%, which is near the national average of 57.6%. This rate represents the aggregate of all judge decisions at the office and includes both fully favorable and partially favorable outcomes. Judge approval rates at this office range from 56.3% to 70.3%, indicating relatively consistent decision patterns across the bench.

The current average wait time for a hearing at this office is 9 months, which is comparable to the national average of 8.4 months. Once a hearing takes place, this office issues decisions in an average of 280 days. There are currently 793 cases pending at this office. That works out to approximately 198 pending cases per judge.

Across the judges at this office, the average fully favorable rate is 54.8%. A fully favorable decision means the claimant receives benefits from the onset date they requested, as opposed to a partially favorable decision which may award benefits from a later date.

The relatively consistent decision patterns across judges at San Rafael can give claimants and their representatives a clearer sense of what to expect. This consistency suggests that case-level factors — strength of medical evidence, quality of representation, and vocational circumstances — are likely the primary drivers of outcomes at this office.

With an average wait time of 9 months and 280 days average processing time, claimants at San Rafael can expect a total timeline of roughly 18 months from hearing request to decision.

Judges at San Rafael have collectively issued 687 decisions in the current fiscal year, averaging 172 decisions per judge. Individual caseloads range from 6 to 394 decisions, reflecting differences in hearing schedules and case complexity.