Top Social Security Judge Steps Down After Criticism

It was announced yesterday that Charlie Andrus–chief Social Security Administration judge in the agency’s Huntington, West Virginia, office—voluntarily stepped down from his position amid controversy about an approval-happy judge who he was overseeing.

After the Wall Street Journal reported on May 19 that Judge David B. Daugherty had approved all 729 disability appeals cases that had come before him in 2011, the agency put him on indefinite administrative leave while they investigated the Huntington office.

The WSJ also found that Daugherty had taken on an unusually high number of cases and that he was taking cases that had been assigned to other judges. The newspaper wondered, too, if the judge hadn’t made “improper” agreements with disability lawyers in Huntington.

Andrus has served as the Huntington office’s chief judge for 14 years. He will remain a judge there, though not its chief judge.

In May, Andrus told the Wall Street Journal that—with regard to Daugherty’s high percentage of cases approved—“the numbers speak for themselves” and that “as a supervisor I don’t ask judges why they decide cases the way they do.”

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Do you feel like the Social Security Administration needs to improve its process of approving and denying disability claims?

If you need help with your Social Security benefits, contact the Social Security Disability lawyers at Fleschner, Stark, Tanoos & Newlin.