Approval rates
Judge Evans has issued 22,397 decisions during a 10-year tenure on the bench. His lifetime approval rate of 42% is compared against the Wichita office's latest approval rate of 52% and the national average of 58%. These metrics offer a high-level view of historical outcomes at this hearing office, though they do not predict the outcome of 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 Evans'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 the past decade, the approval rate for Judge Evans has remained relatively steady. While the most recent period shows a 39% approval rate, this follows a multi-year trend where annual rates have hovered between 37% and 50%. This stability suggests a consistent approach to case evaluation when you appear before him.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Evans'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.
About the Wichita hearing office
The Wichita Hearing Office serves you and other claimants across Kansas, managing a significant volume of disability cases with a bench of 6 judges. The office currently maintains an approval rate of 52%, reflecting regional trends in SSDI adjudication. You should be prepared for a rigorous review of your medical documentation and vocational evidence. You can see the Wichita 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 Wichita office, lifetime approval rates among the 6 ALJs range from 38% to 66%. Because of this variance, the judge you draw can influence the procedural flow of your hearing.
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.