The 150 or so Administrative Law Judges recently hired by SSA should start making their way to ODAR offices around the country soon.  I don't know if this will help reduce wait times at the hearing level or just help keep up with the increased case load, but either way it is good news for SSDI and SSI claimants.  This new influx of ALJs could significantly change the make up of each hearing office.  This could make some offices more favorable to claimants and others less favorable depending on the individual ALJs beliefs.  It should also be interesting for lawyers as we try and figure out what each particular ALJ likes and dislikes and how they handle their hearings.  Also new this summer is the pilot program, which a limited number of law firms are a part of including mine, which will test how lawyers and eventually claimants will be able to access their files on-line.  This is something i have talked about for a while and I believe may be the most significant improvement in the Social Security Disability process in recent memory.  Hopefully this new way of being able to view the file will make it much easier to develop the file and get the file ready for a decision.  It should also cut down on much of the administrative work by lawyers and SSA employees since there will not be a need to send so many letters back in forth about the status of a claim and what is still needed for the file.  I have a Social Security Disability conference coming up in a couple of weeks and will post any new developments in Social Security that I feel might be of interest to you.