Approval rates
Judge Dillon has issued 2,246 lifetime decisions with an overall approval rate of 60%. In the most recent reporting period, your approval rate was 53%, which sits 11 percentage points above the current NHC Baltimore office average of 49%. These figures provide a statistical look at the judge's history compared to state and national benchmarks. 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 Dillon'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 decade on the bench, Judge Dillon has shown a consistent approach to your disability claim. While the yearly trend shows some variance in volume, the lifetime approval rate of 60% remains a stable indicator of the judge's historical decision-making. The most recent data shows a 53% approval rate, reflecting a slight shift from earlier years but remaining well within the expected range for this office. This pattern suggests a judge who evaluates your case based on the specific evidence you present.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Dillon'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.
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. At the NHC Baltimore office, lifetime approval rates across the bench range from 46% to 81%. This variation highlights why it is important to be prepared for any judge you might draw. For preparation purposes, the guidance is the same regardless of which judge you are assigned.
Your odds change dramatically with a lawyer
Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-18-37. The 3× gap is a population-wide average across all judges; individual outcomes vary.