Approval rates
Comparing a judge's approval rate to office and national benchmarks provides perspective on the hearing process. While the national average currently sits at 58%, Judge Fernandez Rice has maintained a 48% approval rate over her 17,808 lifetime decisions. These figures are derived from a large volume of cases, offering a stable view of past decision patterns. 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 Rice'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 her 8 years on the bench, Judge Fernandez Rice has shown a varied approval trend. Her annual approval rates fluctuated from 40% in 2018 to a peak of 64% in 2022, before settling at 55% in 2023. This trajectory suggests that your judge's decision-making is responsive to the specific evidence and case mix presented during different periods. The recent data reflects a continuation of this pattern of evaluation.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Rice'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 utilizes a workload-balancing algorithm to assign cases, meaning your specific judge is selected randomly. Within the Special Review Cadre, lifetime approval rates among the bench range from 32% to 63%. This variance highlights why you should focus on the strength of your own medical evidence. For preparation purposes, the guidance remains consistent 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.