Approval rates
Comparing a judge's lifetime performance against current office and national benchmarks provides helpful context for your hearing. Stephen Marchioro has presided over 18,311 lifetime decisions during his 9-year tenure. While his lifetime rate is 45%, recent reporting shows a variance of 19 points below the current Billings office average. 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 Marchioro'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 9 years on the bench, Stephen Marchioro's approval rate has shown an upward trend. After starting with lower approval rates in the mid-2010s, his recent data indicates a steady increase, reaching 62% in 2024. This shift suggests that his recent decision-making pattern has moved closer to the current office average. This trend reflects an evolution in his approach to case evidence over the last several years.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Marchioro'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 Marchioro? Free, confidential — see if you qualify for SSDI.
Free Benefits ReviewAbout the Billings hearing office
The Billings Hearing Office serves you and other claimants across Montana and the surrounding region. With a bench of 6 judges, the office manages a significant volume of disability claims with a recent approval rate of 64%. You can expect a professional environment focused on the medical and vocational evidence presented in your file. You can see the Billings Hearing Office page for the full ALJ roster.
Other judges at this hearing office
The SSA uses a workload-balancing algorithm to assign cases, meaning your assignment to a specific judge is essentially random. At the Billings Hearing Office, lifetime approval rates among the 6 judges range from 31% to 69%. Because of this variance, understanding the office environment is as important as knowing your specific judge. You can find more information on the office's performance on the Billings 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.