Approval rates
Comparing a judge's approval rate to broader benchmarks provides context for your hearing. While the national average approval rate sits at 58% and the Albany office averages 67%, Judge Ba-Yunus has a lifetime approval rate of 40% across 17,827 decisions. These figures reflect a significant volume of cases, offering a stable look at historical decision-making. Aggregate rates describe past decisions, not predictions for your individual hearing.
Office- and national-level breakdowns of fully favorable vs denial rates aren't currently published by SSA in the per-office disposition data. The judge's own breakdown is the detail we have today.
Approval rate over time
Year-over-year approval rate across Judge Ba-Yunus's docket. Annual rates fluctuate with the mix of cases SSA assigns; the longer-run pattern is more informative than any single year.
Decision pattern
Over a 10-year tenure, the decision pattern for Judge Ba-Yunus has evolved. After an initial period of higher approval rates, the data indicates a decline followed by a steady climb in recent years, with the latest period showing a 49% approval rate. This recent uptick suggests a shift in the judge's current decision-making landscape compared to the lifetime average. These trends are useful for understanding the judge's history, though your case remains unique.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Ba-Yunus's bench. Judge-specific preparation guidance requires a corpus of public Appeals Council decisions involving each judge, which we haven't built yet.
- Bring a clean treating-physician record. Longitudinal primary-care or specialist notes spanning the disability period, with consistent symptom documentation, are typically the strongest evidence at hearing. A single month's records usually aren't enough.
- Don't rely on consultative exams alone. If your medical evidence is built primarily around a one-time CE finding, expect detailed questioning. Supplement with treating-source statements where possible.
- Prepare for daily-activity questions. Have honest, specific answers about a typical day. Answers that conflict with the medical record (in either direction) tend to hurt credibility.
- Expect transferable-skills probing. A vocational expert will usually testify about jobs available to someone with your limitations. Your representative should be prepared to cross-examine.
Hearing with Judge Ba-Yunus? Free, confidential — see if you qualify for SSDI.
Free Benefits ReviewAbout the Albany hearing office
The Albany Hearing Office serves you across New York, managing a high volume of disability cases with a team of 6 administrative law judges. The office currently maintains an approval rate of 67%, which is higher than the national average. You can expect a formal process focused on your medical evidence and vocational testimony. You can visit the Albany Hearing Office page for the full ALJ roster.
Other judges at this hearing office
The Social Security Administration uses a workload-balancing algorithm to assign cases, meaning your assignment to a specific judge is essentially random. Within the Albany Hearing Office, lifetime approval rates among the 6 judges range from 40% to 81%. Because each judge brings a different perspective to the evidence, understanding the office-wide environment is helpful. For preparation purposes, the guidance is the same regardless of which judge you are assigned.
Your odds change dramatically with a lawyer
SSDI hearing approval rates — represented vs. on your own
Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-18-37. The 3× gap is a population-wide average across all judges; individual outcomes vary.