Posted on 04/02/2005 10:54:04 AM PST by BenLurkin
PALMDALE - Federal judges and aerospace-engineering instructors have replaced the Superior Court judges who used to preside over civil cases at the Palmdale Courthouse. Instead of ruling on family law and civil matters, the federal judges are handing down rulings on disagreements over Social Security benefits.
The judicial officers are administrative law judges who hear appeals concerning federal retirement, survivors, disability and supplemental-security income benefits, city spokeswoman Barbara La Fata said.
The judges are employed by the Social Security Administration's Office of Hearings and Appeals, La Fata said.
Since late November, the judges have been traveling to Palmdale to hear the cases, said Jan Donsbach, the chief judge assigned to the facility.
"The main office is in Long Beach, and the Office of Hearings and Appeals there is composed of six judges, all of whom take turns doing Palmdale-Lancaster dockets," Donsbach said.
His colleagues are judges Eric Benham, Robert Evans, Theodore Gotsch, Edward Graham and Peggy Zirlin.
Before moving into two of the four courtrooms at the Palmdale facility, "We went to the Oxford Inn (in Lancaster), where we rented a conference room and held the hearings there," Donsbach said.
"This is a much better environment for the judges; the security aspect is very good, and we have proper rooms for proceedings," he said.
"We're expecting that a this whole program will grow and that there will be more and more cases. Next year or so, we will probably have a judge here every week," Donsbach said.
Hearings typically concern the income benefits owed under Social Security's disability program or its supplemental secured income disability program, he said.
The disability program is for people who are not eligible for retirement benefits but have a disease or disability that precludes them from working any longer.
The supplemental secured income disability program is for people who are indigent but cannot work because of their disabilities. The program also is the mechanism for providing income for needy children under age 18.
Although the Office of Hearings and Appeals decides matters related to Social Security, it is a separate entity with separate funding, Donsbach said.
The hearings are "non-adversarial" and typically involve only the judge, the claimant, the claimant's attorney and possibly a vocational or medical expert, he said.
Within the Office of Hearings and Appeals, more than 1,150 administrative law judges enter over 500,000 decisions a year at the hearing level, according to information posted on the office's Web site.
The number of local cases varies from month to month, but on average, the number is at least 660 a year, Donsbach said.
"Our judges are very delighted to have this, because it was difficult working out of a suitcase," he said.
Instead of carrying relevant case information in the trunks of their cars, the information can be shipped to and stored at the Palmdale courthouse, he said.
"We're hoping the city will be happy with us as well and that we can continue to work here," Donsbach said.
The Palmdale office is part of an organization that consists of 10 regional offices and 140 hearing offices, including eight temporary sites and three satellite offices.
The courthouse complex was built by the city of Palmdale at a cost of $3.7 million.
The courthouse was leased to the County of Los Angeles in return for re-establishing a site for civil cases to be heard in the Antelope Valley.
The civil judges assigned to the courthouse in February 2001 were relocated to the county's regional Michael D. Antonovich Courthouse in November 2003.
In October, 2004, the city leased the other two courtrooms in the complex to NASA's Aerospace, Education, Research and Operations Institute.
The AERO Institute offers college-credit courses in aerospace technology at 26 public and private colleges and universities in California.
The institute is affiliated with Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base and the University of California Space Grant Foundation.
The supplemental secured income disability program is for people who are indigent but cannot work because of their disabilities. The program also is the mechanism for providing income for needy children under age 18.
Many aren't aware of this aspect of nor cost to SS. This has to be expensive, too:
The Palmdale office is part of an organization that consists of 10 regional offices and 140 hearing offices, including eight temporary sites and three satellite offices.
IMO, this is just an extension of welfare quitly hidden in SS.
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