Approval rates
Comparing a judge's history against broader benchmarks provides context for your upcoming hearing. Judge Martin maintains a lifetime approval rate of 53%, which we evaluate against the latest office-wide rate of 51% and the national average of 58%. These figures are derived from 17,068 lifetime decisions, offering a look at her tenure. 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 Martin'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 10 years on the bench, your judge's approval patterns have shown notable shifts. After a period of relative stability, the latest reporting period shows an approval rate of 76%, which diverges from her long-term average. This recent uptick follows a decade of fluctuating annual rates that ranged from 44% to 63%. These variations often reflect changes in the complexity of cases or the specific medical evidence presented during those years.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Martin'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 NHC Chicago hearing office
The NHC Chicago Hearing Office serves a large population in Illinois, managing a high volume of disability claims. With a bench of 6 judges, the office operates within a complex regional system to process applications efficiently. You can expect a formal hearing process focused on the medical and vocational evidence of your disability. You can see the NHC Chicago Hearing Office page for the full ALJ roster.
Other judges at this hearing office
The Social Security Administration uses a workload-balancing algorithm to assign cases, meaning your assignment to a specific judge is essentially random. Across the NHC Chicago bench, lifetime approval rates for judges range from 41% to 69%. Because of this variance, understanding the general environment of your hearing office is helpful. You can find more information on the NHC Chicago hearing office page.
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.