Approval rates
Comparing a judge's history to broader benchmarks provides context for your upcoming hearing. Judge Preston maintains a lifetime approval rate of 49%, which can be measured against the NHC St Louis office's latest rate of 46% and the national average of 58%. These figures are derived from a substantial docket of 14,478 lifetime decisions, offering a stable view of her judicial history. 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 Preston'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 9 years on the bench, Judge Preston has seen her approval rates fluctuate. After an initial period of activity, the trend has stabilized, with the most recent reporting period showing a 44% approval rate. This latest figure reflects a slight deviation from her long-term average, potentially influenced by changes in case complexity or the specific evidence presented in recent dockets. This pattern suggests a consistent approach to evaluating your disability claim.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Preston'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 St Louis hearing office
The NHC St Louis Hearing Office serves you and other claimants throughout Missouri and the surrounding region. It is one of several offices managing a high volume of disability appeals, with a bench of 6 judges who handle thousands of cases annually. The office currently maintains a latest-period approval rate of 46%. You can visit the NHC St Louis 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 specific judge is effectively chosen at random. Across the NHC St Louis office, lifetime approval rates among the bench range from 41% to 70%. While these variations exist, the fundamental requirements for proving your disability remain consistent regardless of the judge assigned to your case.
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.