Approval rates
Lohr's approval rate is evaluated against the latest performance metrics of the Akron OH Hearing Office and national standards. With a decade of experience, her data reflects a significant volume of cases, providing a stable baseline for comparison. In the most recent reporting period, her approval rate of 59% outperformed the office average by 5 percentage points. Aggregate rates describe past decisions, not predictions for individual hearings.
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 Lohr'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 10 years on the bench, Lohr has maintained a consistent decision pattern. After an initial period of growth in approval rates between 2016 and 2019, the trend has stabilized, consistently hovering around the 60% to 61% mark in recent years. This stability suggests a predictable approach to evaluating evidence and medical documentation. The latest period reflects a continuation of this steady pattern, showing that her current decision-making remains aligned with her long-term career average.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Lohr'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 Lohr? Free, confidential — see if you qualify for SSDI.
Free Benefits ReviewAbout the Akron OH hearing office
The Akron OH Hearing Office serves a broad population across Ohio, managing a high volume of disability claims. With a bench of 6 judges, the office maintains an environment where evidence quality and medical testimony are central to every hearing. You can see the Akron OH Hearing Office page for the full ALJ 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. Across the Akron OH bench, lifetime approval rates for the 6 judges range from 44% to 60%. Because case assignment is outside of your control, understanding the office-wide environment is as important as reviewing any single judge's history. The office-wide range provides a broader view of the local hearing environment.
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.