You’ve already applied for Social Security benefits, been denied once, appealed, and was denied a second time, so you filed your request for hearing. Now you’re wanting to know how long you can expect to wait before having the opportunity to plead your case in front of a judge.
While the wait time varies across the country, current wait times in Jacksonville, Florida (including the surrounding areas of St. Augustine, Orange Park, and Fernandina Beach), are around two years. Official data from the Social Security Administration (SSA) puts the wait time at 20 months as of September 2018, but I have had clients who have had to wait up to two full years from the date their hearing was requested (not the date of the initial application) before they had the opportunity to present their case to an Administrative Law Judge, while others did not even have to wait 18 months.
Part of the reason for the severe backlog is the vast number of cases that are in process, combined with a shortage of Administrative Law Judges to hear the cases.
There are very few ways that you can have your claim processed quicker than the above timeline: one is by facing a foreclosure or eviction on your primary residence, and another is to have a condition that is expected to end in death in the next twelve months.
One other way you can try to get your claim processed a bit quicker is by allowing your claim to be heard by an Administrative Law Judge in a different area. This tactic allows your case to possibly be sent to a judge in a different area with a smaller wait time for hearing than in Jacksonville, which would allow your case to be scheduled quicker. However, before agreeing to what is known as a “Videoteleconference Hearing,” I would encourage you to speak with a lawyer to see if such a hearing would have any negative impact on your case.