On Sunday August 3, 2008, the Hon. James J. Lawwill, the Administrative Law Judge in charge of the Tucson Social Security hearing office passed away just shy of his 92nd birthday. Judge Lawwill had been in the Tucson hearing office for over 20 years, and I was always remember him for his kind and gentle manner during hearings. He will be missed.
I have not heard whether another judge will be selected to replace him, so it's not clear what effect his death will have on the scheduling of hearings in the Tucson office. Before his death, we had 5 administrative law judges ("ALJ's") hearing cases in Tucson, but they also heard cases from other cities outside of Arizona since Social Security law is federal law. Currently hearings in Tucson are being held 7 to 9 months after the request for hearing has been filed. That's actually much quicker than other offices. I have heard that hearings in the Phoenix office are taking 22 months, but I haven't seen the statistics to know if that is actually true.
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