Retired Judge Frank B. Borowiec used to work as an administrative law judge (“ALJ”), who are the judges who hear the first appeal for unsuccessful disability benefit applicants. Borowiec also served as senior judge in the Social Security Administration’s (“SSA”) Atlanta office of the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals and as chief judge for Region IV for two years. He is well experienced in dealing with disability applicants and the process they use to obtain benefits, and Borowiec recently published a book about the uphill battle he and others faced to improve the process.
Borowiec’s book is entitled, “Upholdling the Rule of Law in the Social Security Administration.” He bemoans the long wait applicants face (the average appeal takes over a year). Each case could present Borowiec an opportunity to correct an injustice, he says, but applicants grow more impoverished during the year they have to wait and, even then, the benefits may not be enough. A Tulsa Social Security Disability attorney is available to assist disability applicants with their claims.
SSA regulations and legal proceedings are mostly what Borowiec’s blames for the backlog. As an example he cites how individual states make the initial disability determination, not the federal SSA, but the determination comes from interpretations of the SSA laws and regulations. The interpretations themselves have no legal standing, and ALJs cannot even refer to them when rendering their decision. Borowiec pulls no punches, hoping that his suggestions can one day help ease the suffering of the nearly million people whose claims are still pending on appeal.
Troutman & Troutman, P.C. – Tulsa Social Security Disability lawyers
