SSA Administrative Law Judge

Hon. George A Mills III

SSDI Administrative Law Judge at the Nhc St Louis Hearing Office · 2 years on the bench · 3,570 lifetime decisions

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Approval rates

Judge Mills III's approval rate is comparative information — useful context, not a prediction. SSA assigns cases by a load-balancing algorithm and every hearing is decided on its own evidence; aggregate rates describe the docket as a whole, not the next case.

Metric Judge Mills III Nhc St Louis National
Approval rate 34% 46% 58%
Fully favorable 29%
Denials 66%

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 Mills III's docket. Annual rates fluctuate with the mix of cases SSA assigns; the longer-run pattern is more informative than any single year.

Judge Mills III
0%10%20%30%40%FY16FY17
Source: SSA OHO disposition data. Approval rate = fully favorable + partially favorable decisions divided by total dispositions excluding dismissals.

Preparing for an SSDI hearing

The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Mills 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.

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About the Nhc St Louis hearing office

Judge Mills III hears cases at the SSA Nhc St Louis Hearing Office. The office's overall approval rate is 46%. Wait times, office contact information, and the full ALJ roster live on the hearing-office page.

Your odds change dramatically with a lawyer

SSDI hearing approval rates — represented vs. on your own

WITHOUT A LAWYER
baseline approval rate
Unrepresented claimants
WITH A LAWYER
~3×
higher approval rate
Represented claimants
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Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-18-37. The 3× gap is a population-wide average across all judges; individual outcomes vary.

Frequently asked questions