Approval rates
Comparing a judge's performance requires looking at both their long-term history and recent trends. Judge Poulose has a lifetime approval rate of 43%. In the most recent reporting period, her approval rate reached 52%, which is 8 percentage points below the current office average and 15 points below the national average. These figures reflect historical trends rather than specific outcomes for your case.
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 Poulose'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 her 10-year tenure, Judge Poulose has presided over 17,362 lifetime decisions. Her approval rate has shown an upward trend in recent years, rising from 33% in 2019 to 58% in 2024. The most recent data from 2025 shows a rate of 54%, suggesting a stabilization following that period of growth. This pattern indicates that her recent decision-making has become more favorable compared to her earlier years on the bench.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Poulose'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 you across the Illinois region. It is staffed by 6 administrative law judges who manage a high volume of disability claims. The office currently maintains an approval rate of 51%. If you are appearing here, you should be prepared for a thorough review of your medical evidence. You can see the NHC Chicago 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 Chicago office, lifetime approval rates among the bench range from 41% to 69%. Because of this variance, understanding the local environment is helpful for your preparation. 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.