Approval rates
Comparing a judge's performance to broader benchmarks provides context for your upcoming hearing. Judge Weathers maintains a lifetime approval rate of 52% over 15,359 lifetime decisions. This is evaluated against the latest office approval rate of 66% and the national average of 58%. 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 Weathers'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 Weathers has presided over 15,359 lifetime decisions. The yearly trend indicates a notable shift in recent years, with approval rates rising from 41% in 2020 to 72% in 2025. This upward trajectory suggests a change in the recent case mix or evidentiary standards compared to the earlier years of the judge's career. The latest reporting period reflects a continuation of this recent pattern.
Preparing for an SSDI hearing
The guidance below applies to any SSDI hearing, not specifically to Judge Weathers'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.
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 Special Review Cadre, lifetime approval rates among the bench range from 32% to 63%. Regardless of which judge is assigned to your hearing, the fundamental requirements for proving your disability remain consistent. You can review the full office roster to see the range of experience across the bench.
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.