Approval rates
Judge Loughlin's approval rates are measured against both the NHC Baltimore office and national benchmarks. While his lifetime approval rate stands at 42%, his most recent reporting period shows an approval rate of 40%. This places his recent decisions 7 percentage points below the local office average and 16 percentage points below the national average. 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 Loughlin'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 his 10 years on the bench, Judge Loughlin has presided over 17,825 lifetime decisions. His approval rates have fluctuated over the last decade, reaching a high of 51% in 2024 before shifting to 41% in 2025. This pattern suggests that while his approach remains consistent with his long-term average, recent case outcomes have shown some volatility.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Loughlin'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 Albany hearing office
The NHC Baltimore hearing office serves you throughout the Maryland region, managing a high volume of disability cases. With a bench of 6 judges, the office maintains an average approval rate of 49% as of the latest reporting period. You can see the NHC Baltimore Hearing Office page for the full ALJ roster.
Other judges at this hearing office
The Social Security Administration utilizes a workload-balancing algorithm to assign cases, meaning your assignment to a specific judge is essentially random. Within the NHC Baltimore hearing office, lifetime approval rates among the 6 judges range from 42% to 81%. Because each judge brings a different perspective to the evidence, the judge you draw can influence the 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.