Approval rates
Judge Carnes maintains a lifetime approval rate of 60%, which provides a useful baseline when evaluating the potential trajectory of your claim. This figure is derived from 10,581 decisions made during his 8-year tenure. By comparison, the Tallahassee FL OHO latest office-wide approval rate stands at 63%, while the national average is 58%. These figures reflect historical trends rather than specific outcomes for your case.
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 Carnes'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 8 years on the bench, Judge Carnes has demonstrated a varied decision pattern. While his approval rate reached a high of 66% in 2019, data from 2023 shows an approval rate of 47%. These fluctuations are common in high-volume hearing offices, and the latest period represents a departure from his long-term average rather than a permanent shift in judicial philosophy.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Carnes'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 Carnes? Free, confidential — see if you qualify for SSDI.
Free Benefits ReviewAbout the Tallahassee Fl Oho hearing office
The Tallahassee FL OHO serves a significant population of claimants across the Florida region. As one of the primary hubs for disability adjudication in the state, the office manages a high volume of cases with a bench of 6 judges. The office-wide latest approval rate of 63% reflects the local standards for medical and vocational evidence. You can visit the Tallahassee FL OHO hearing office page for more information on the local roster.
Other judges at this hearing office
The Social Security Administration assigns cases to judges using a workload-balancing algorithm, meaning your assignment is essentially random. Within the Tallahassee FL OHO, lifetime approval rates for the bench range from 51% to 67%. Because each judge has unique preferences for how evidence is presented, understanding the office-wide environment is helpful for your preparation.
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.