Hon. Kevin Dugan

On March 3rd Judge Kevin Dugan and I met with agency officials in Baltimore.
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On February 29, 2003 Judge Kevin Dugan attended a meeting of the Board of Directors and Executive Officers of the National Association of Disability Examiners (NADE) in Washington, D.C.This is the first time that we have met with this organization which consists of DDS disability examiners.The meeting was very productive with the primary area of discussion being devoted to medical education for adjudicators and a discussion of the common problems we share in the disability process.We agreed to continue to work together.We also agreed that we should each have a representative at the conference of the other organization.Judge Dugan has been invited to speak at the NADE 2003 national training conference in Albany, NY in October.This was a very important meeting and it is vital that our organizations develop a mutually beneficial relationship.

Labor/Management Committee Meeting

The Labor/Management Committee will meet in Falls Church, VA this week.The committee is created under our contract with the agency.

Judge Kevin Dugan has completed our appellate brief in the transfer arbitration case.We will post it on our website.

Meeting Schedules

The Federal Bar Association Summit is scheduled for March 17, 2003.The meeting will be held in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill.

Kevin Dugan will be vice president and Dan Asis will hold the position of treasurer.

But Judge Kevin Dugan of Charlotte, N.C., vice president of the national judges association, said the statistics aren't proof of unfairness.

"To say I want a judge that is going to give me a certain percentage would be backward," Dugan said."In the final analysis, what you want from a judge is that he or she brings their best judgment to bear on the evidence of each case."

Dugan also argued that seven years' of cases numbering 34,402 in total isn't a large enough sample from which to glean a trend.

The Social Security Administration hasn't kept approval rate records for its judges for 19 years, officials said, forcing a painstaking investigation of raw records to develop the stats.

Agency officials had no explanation for the differences in rates.

Workers who are knocked out of the job market by illness or injury can apply for early benefits, which average about $750 a month.

Pursuing that mandate, on Feb. 11, 2004, Judge Kevin Dugan, as representative of ALJ organizations, testified before the House Subcommittee on Civil Service and Agency Organization in support of the legislation.The subcommittee chair, Rep.

But Judge Kevin Dugan of Charlotte, N.C., vice president of the national judges association, said the statistics aren't proof of unfairness.

"To say I want a judge that is going to give me a certain percentage would be backward," Dugan said."In the final analysis, what you want from a judge is that he or she brings their best judgment to bear on the evidence of each case."

Dugan also argued that seven years' of cases -- numbering 34,402 in total -- isn't a large enough sample from which to glean a trend.

The Social Security Administration hasn't kept approval rate records for its judges for 19 years, officials said, forcing a painstaking investigation of raw records to develop the stats.

Agency officials had no explanation for the differences in rates.

Workers who are knocked out of the job market by illness or injury can apply for early benefits, which average about $750 a month.

"We have never, ever gotten close to what we were doing before HPI," said Kevin Dugan, an administrative law judge in the Charlotte hearing office and vice president of the National Association of Administrative Law Judges.

The twelve-year legal battle was memorialized by an article written by the Honorable Kevin Dugan, United States Administrative Law Judge entitled Barbarians on the Green.

Kevin Dugan, a vice-president in the judge's union, accused Marshall of drawing attention to the Puerto Rico event out of pique.
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"He's mad at us because we said there needs to be accountability in the system," Dugan said.

Kevin Dugan, an administrative law judge in the Charlotte hearing office and vice president of the national Association of Administrative Law Judges, said he had occasion to test the order about five years ago.He said a lawyer was repeatedly failing to show up for hearings, saying he was too busy.That meant his clients' hearings had to be rescheduled, delaying a decision on their benefits.Meanwhile, he was advertising on television for new clients.

Dugan reported his concerns up the ranks of Social Security, as specified in the order.He said nothing happened.

"The experience has been if you do report it to these people [in the Social Security Administration]," Dugan said, "it's like going into a black hole."