Hey federal decision writers

[Anonymous]

Looks like BVA is doing a mass hiring . Hear the SSA is firing people without giving reasons why . Any union news?

[Anonymous]

The BVA attorney advisor position is quite possibly the worst attorney position in the federal government. BVA attorneys not only have to put up with an extremely challenging production quota requiring more than 40 hrs of work per week, they also have to work in a place known for its culture of fear. I know this from firsthand experience.

Check out this thread for more information.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/697143.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The BVA attorney advisor position is quite possibly the worst attorney position in the federal government. BVA attorneys not only have to put up with an extremely challenging production quota requiring more than 40 hrs of work per week, they also have to work in a place known for its culture of fear. I know this from firsthand experience.

Check out this thread for more information.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/697143.page

i hear their ssa is getting the same way

[Anonymous]

The work environment at SSA is declining, but it is still significantly better than BVA - case in point, BVA does mass firings while SSA does not. SSA actually tries to help employees succeed if they are having difficulty meeting standards, whereas BVA will actively try to sink employees deemed to be inadequate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The work environment at SSA is declining, but it is still significantly better than BVA - case in point, BVA does mass firings while SSA does not. SSA actually tries to help employees succeed if they are having difficulty meeting standards, whereas BVA will actively try to sink employees deemed to be inadequate.

can you have a career at SSA or is it mostly term work? All I aspire out of life is to not be homeless and that means I need steady employment

[Anonymous]

SSA has recently started only hiring attorney advisors for term positions. I don’t think this will change anytime soon because the backlog at SSA has declined significantly and the current crop of term attorneys are at risk for layoffs due to lack of work.

[Anonymous]

These jobs are garbage anyway and arguably shouldn’t be done by attorneys. They weren’t for years. The agencies only switched to take advantage of the easier hiring processes for excepted service positions. The glut of law grads after the financial crisis made it even easier.

[Anonymous]

Are they garbage for someone who otherwise would be doing doc review ?

[Anonymous]

I worked in the same building as BVA for years until recently. People there were miserable. Most hated that they worked there, but had nowhere else to go.

[Anonymous]

Can someone explain what "federal decision writers" do?

[Anonymous]

The Social Security Administration has many decisions writers. They can be either paralegals or attorneys, but they are paid the same and have the same duties. The Administrative Law Judges hold hearings. The writer creates a decision for the judge to review and sign based on his writing instructions. The judges must produce many decisions and can’t write each one themselves. The writers are often in a pool and have no clerk-like relationship to the judge. They write for all the judges in an office or even random judges from across the country. The job involves lots of boiler plate writing, summarizing medical records, and needing to do all of that in a limited amount of time. If you’re not a 95 percent DWPI at SSA, you might be let go and that could mean being only a decision or two off for a month. Still, there is three to four days of telework a week, flexible hours, federal benefits, and low stress compared to other attorney jobs. Other agencies have decision writers, but they may be treated differently.

Below is a link to the ALJ discussion forum on decision writers.
http://aljdiscussion.proboards.com/thread/4455/attorney-advisors-decision-writers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Social Security Administration has many decisions writers. They can be either paralegals or attorneys, but they are paid the same and have the same duties. The Administrative Law Judges hold hearings. The writer creates a decision for the judge to review and sign based on his writing instructions. The judges must produce many decisions and can’t write each one themselves. The writers are often in a pool and have no clerk-like relationship to the judge. They write for all the judges in an office or even random judges from across the country. The job involves lots of boiler plate writing, summarizing medical records, and needing to do all of that in a limited amount of time. If you’re not a 95 percent DWPI at SSA, you might be let go and that could mean being only a decision or two off for a month. Still, there is three to four days of telework a week, flexible hours, federal benefits, and low stress compared to other attorney jobs. Other agencies have decision writers, but they may be treated differently.

Below is a link to the ALJ discussion forum on decision writers.
http://aljdiscussion.proboards.com/thread/4455/attorney-advisors-decision-writers

Thanks! What is the production requirement per month in general? For example, how many decisions a writer has to write each month? and how long/complicated is a decision in general?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Social Security Administration has many decisions writers. They can be either paralegals or attorneys, but they are paid the same and have the same duties. The Administrative Law Judges hold hearings. The writer creates a decision for the judge to review and sign based on his writing instructions. The judges must produce many decisions and can’t write each one themselves. The writers are often in a pool and have no clerk-like relationship to the judge. They write for all the judges in an office or even random judges from across the country. The job involves lots of boiler plate writing, summarizing medical records, and needing to do all of that in a limited amount of time. If you’re not a 95 percent DWPI at SSA, you might be let go and that could mean being only a decision or two off for a month. Still, there is three to four days of telework a week, flexible hours, federal benefits, and low stress compared to other attorney jobs. Other agencies have decision writers, but they may be treated differently.

Below is a link to the ALJ discussion forum on decision writers.
http://aljdiscussion.proboards.com/thread/4455/attorney-advisors-decision-writers

Thanks! What is the production requirement per month in general? For example, how many decisions a writer has to write each month? and how long/complicated is a decision in general?

Most of the SSA attorney positions in the DC area are for the appellate, not decision writer level. Instead of being provided instructions to follow by an ALJ, Appeals Council attorneys review ALJ decisions first and then make a recommendation to appellate adjudicators. So you’re not just being told what to do. It’s not the most glamorous area of law, but it is highly technical and new issues are coming up all the time, plus it is nice when you get to help claimants (whether getting someone who is disabled paid or fixing a due process issue). Because our HQ is here, there are more promotional opportunities than decision writers at the hearing level. There are also opportunities for detail assignments, to take on a mentor/leadership role, or to move into management (or possibly become an Appeals Judge someday although it’s highly competitive).

Production is of course important, but the workload is manageable if you know how to manage your time. With telework and flex band, it’s great for work life balance. The work is very independent so you have a lot of control over your schedule.

A PP mentioned that paralegals and attorneys are on the same pay scale, but they haven’t hired non-attorneys in close to a decade for these positions and the attorneys have more room for career growth.

The downsides are that the work is very niche and doesn’t translate well to other agencies. It can also be isolating unless you make the effort to join work groups, socialize while in the office, etc.

[Anonymous]

The SSA quota became worse this year at the hearing offices. A few years ago, it was 75 to 80 percent DWPI, but it was increased to 95 DWPI last year. However, you still had time to improve and increase your productivity over many months under the old union contract in 2019, so 95 percent DWPI was not as dire in terms of firing. The new union contract made firings easier at SSA without long performance improvement plans and chances to increase your DWPI in 2020.

You have 3.94 hours for a favorable, 10.5 hours for an unfavorable, and 12 hours for a partially favorable. You’re probably looking at writing 20 to 30 decisions a month. This is fine, especially for an experienced writer. I was at 100 DWPI my first year and increased to 120 DWPI by my second year…but you must stay focused and worry about getting a “bad” case. For example, a case with three remands from federal court, thirty opinions, three thousand pages of medical, etc….and you have the same 10.5 hours for it. If that case takes you two days to do, it can really put you behind on DWPI and if you get several like it in a month…..Ouch.

Luckily, they added a downtime tracker this year. Last year, let’s say your computer crashed and it took a day to fix it. That’s bad for your DWPI as you are not writing but it was considered “baked in” and you dealt with it. This year, you can have downtime taken out of your DWPI, so there is a little less fear of a computer crash ruining your DWPI.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the explanation. What is the potential potential of the decision writer? If you can get to GS-15, that appears to be a good job with work-life balance.