Approval rates
Comparing a judge's approval rate to office and national benchmarks provides context for your upcoming hearing. Judge Bareford's lifetime approval rate of 46% is based on 19,601 lifetime decisions. While his latest approval rate of 47% sits slightly below the Pittsburgh office average of 48%, it remains a data point rather than a guarantee of your specific outcome.
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 Bareford'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 his 10-year tenure, your judge's approval rates have fluctuated, starting at 57% in 2016. More recently, his approval patterns have stabilized, with rates of 47% in 2022, 51% in 2023, 47% in 2024, and 51% in 2025. This consistency suggests a settled approach to evaluating your disability claim.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Bareford'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 Bareford? Free, confidential — see if you qualify for SSDI.
Free Benefits ReviewAbout the Pittsburgh hearing office
The Pittsburgh Hearing Office serves a broad population across Pennsylvania. With 6 judges on the bench, the office maintains an average approval rate of 48% in the latest reporting period. You can expect a formal administrative process focused on your medical evidence and vocational testimony.
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 Pittsburgh Hearing Office, lifetime approval rates among the 6 judges vary significantly, ranging from 28% to 57%. Because you cannot choose your judge, understanding the office-wide environment is as important as reviewing one individual's history.
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.