The Social Security Administration’s inspector general has dropped an effort to fine four attorneys in the Office of Disability Adjudication and Review $5,000 for each time they used general expert testimony developed for one case and applied it to similar cases.
The IG had invoked Section 1129 of the Social Security Act, which provides for penalties for misrepresentations regarding disability payment awards, according to the National Treasury Employees Union, which represented two of the attorneys and their supervisor along with private counsel retained by the fourth employee.
One senior attorney faced a proposed fine of $3.5 million while three others faced fines totaling more than $100,000 each.
NTEU appealed to SSA commissioner Jo Anne Barnhart to call off the IG investigations, arguing in part that the employees in question were not culpable because an administrative law judge in the employee’s office had directed that the general testimony be included in some 700 decisions.
The union, which represents about 800 hearings and appeals employees, also claimed that the staff attorneys have quasi-judicial immunity because they were working under the ALJ’s guidance and that they further enjoy qualified immunity as federal employees, shielding them from personal liability.
The IG had argued that the ALJ’s practice was misleading and illegal because there was nothing indicating the origin of the testimony in the decisions, but the IG agreed not to take further action against the employees.
