Approval rates
Comparing a judge's lifetime approval rate to recent office and national data provides context for your upcoming hearing. Judge Plucker has maintained a lifetime approval rate of 55% over 15,431 lifetime decisions. In the most recent reporting period, this rate reached 63%, which is 1 point above the St Louis office average and 3 points above the state average.
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 Plucker'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 a 10-year tenure, Judge Plucker has shown a consistent approach to disability adjudication. While the approval rate remained steady between 52% and 57% for much of the last decade, recent years have seen an uptick in favorable outcomes, reaching 64% in 2025. This shift reflects a trend in recent rulings rather than a static preference.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Plucker'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 Plucker? Free, confidential — see if you qualify for SSDI.
Free Benefits ReviewAbout the St Louis hearing office
The St Louis Hearing Office serves you and other claimants across Missouri and the surrounding region. It is staffed by a team of 6 administrative law judges who manage a high volume of disability appeals. The office currently maintains an approval rate of 54%, reflecting broader regional trends in disability adjudication. You can visit the St Louis Hearing Office page for the full roster.
Other judges at this hearing office
The SSA assigns cases to judges using a workload-balancing algorithm, meaning the judge you are assigned is essentially random. At the St Louis Hearing Office, lifetime approval rates among the 6 judges range from 41% to 70%. Because of this variance, understanding the tendencies of your assigned judge is a standard part of case preparation.
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.