Federal SSA Disability Outcome

Remand under Sentence 4

A remand under Sentence 4 of the statute means that the Federal Judge has agreed that an error of law has been made and has decided to remand the case for a new hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (‘ALJ'). It is generally the outcome the plaintiff wants when filing a Federal disability appeal to the Federal Court. In the remand decision the Federal Judge will give specific instructions on what issues need to be corrected in the new hearing. Once remanded the plaintiff has a right to request attorney fees from the government under the Equal Access to Justice Act.

Remand under Sentence 6

A Sentence 6 remand under the statute means that the Commissioner agrees to remand the case for a new hearing, however the Federal Court or SSA does not admit an error of law was made. The Federal Court and SSA only admit that there is new evidence to be considered on the claim. The evidence may be that the: Transcript of record is incomplete or has missing exhibits; or evidence is missing form the record. In this case the SSA Commissioner does not admit that the SSA administrative law judge made an error of law, and therefore no federal attorney fees (EAJA) are due because there was no admission of error.

Loss

If the Federal Court Judge determines that there was not an error of law made the Federal Judge will deny the plaintiff's motion on appeal. In general, the Federal Judge's decision is final. In some cases the attorney may appeal the claim to a higher Federal court, however, that is very rare.