Approval rates
Evaluating a judge's history provides context for your upcoming hearing. Judge Lisiecki maintains a lifetime approval rate of 58% based on 20,390 lifetime decisions, which matches the current national average. In the most recent reporting period, your approval rate reached 65%, compared to the 62% average at the Orange Hearing Office. 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 Lisiecki III'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 your 10 years on the bench, you have shown a dynamic approval trend. After a period of fluctuation between 2016 and 2021, your approval rates have trended upward in recent years, reaching 71% in 2023 and 67% in 2025. This recent shift suggests a departure from your earlier decision patterns. These trends often reflect changes in case complexity or the quality of evidence presented in recent dockets.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Lisiecki III'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 Lisiecki III? Free, confidential — see if you qualify for SSDI.
Free Benefits ReviewAbout the Orange hearing office
The Orange Hearing Office serves you across Southern California, managing a high volume of disability cases. With a bench of 6 judges, the office maintains a latest approval rate of 62%. You should be prepared for a rigorous review of your medical documentation and vocational evidence. You can see the Orange Hearing Office page for the full ALJ roster.
Other judges at this hearing office
The Social Security Administration assigns cases using a workload-balancing algorithm, meaning your assignment to a specific judge is essentially random. Across the Orange Hearing Office, lifetime approval rates among the bench range from 44% to 59%. Because each judge manages their courtroom differently, understanding the office-wide environment is helpful. You can find more information on the Orange Hearing Office page.
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.