Scroll down this page for a Flash presentation on using long-form FIT Templates to prepare draft decisions for Administrative Law Judges. It requires software from ODAR, currently version 6, installed on a computer using Windows XP and Word 2003. It will not work with Word 2007 or with Wondows Vista. Installation directions are detailed, and need to be followed carefully. Even if they are carefully followed, the installation will not work on some computers.
WARNING: Previous releases of the FIT Template included a box to check for attorney vs. non-attorney rep, and that seems to be missing from the current release. Attorneys will need to check the language, at the beginning of the decision where their name appears, to make sure that they are referred to as an attorney, and will have to request that the ODAR staff add a page approving the attorney fee agreement. That seems to be a significant oversight, particularly since attorneys are a large potential source of proposed decisions. Did someone want to annoy them and make extra work for them?
The template offers an opportunity for ttorneys to save weeks or months
in getting favorable decisions filed, by preparing proposed decisions
for the ALJ to review and sign. In some cases, a client may have to
wait six months r more for a favorable decision to be written by ODAR
staff attorneys. In exceptional cases, I have submitted favorable
decisions and had them signed and filed within a week. It can mean one
more way to provide excellent representation for clients, beyond their
expectations. However, it requires a very experienced and knowledgeable
attorney or non-attorney rep to complete the portions of the decision
that are not automatically assembled.
When would you want to submit a proposed Fully Favorable Decision, using a FIT Template?
First and most common, when you have a hearing, you are certain that
the ALJ will allow benefits, and you know the precise restrictions that
the ALJ is going to find, you can prepare a proposed decision. This
might happen when an ALJ submits a single hypothetical to a vocational
expert in a hearing, and the vocational expert finds that your client
cannot do any work within those restrictions. Likewise, if an ALJ
announces that he or she will find that your client meets a specific
section of the Listings of Impairments, and why, you can draft a
proposed decision.
Second, if you have a client waiting for a hearing, who clearly meets a
Listing, particularly the definition of Mild Mental Retardation under
Section 12.05 of the Listings, you can draw up a proposed Fully
Favorable Decision. For the most part, though, unless you have a clear
winner, submitting a pre-hearing proposed decision is not likely to
succeed. The ALJ won't sign the decision unless you have the
restrictions almost exactly right.
Third, in rare instances, some ALJs have called attorneys and
non-attorney reps, asking if they would draft a proposed decision, and
listing the specific elements, or faxing them a list with the elements
of the decision. I haven't heard of that happening in Iowa.
When you prepare a decision, you should give it a name based on the
first four letters of the last name, and the last four letters of the
Social Security Number. So a decision for James Q. Sample, SSN
123-45-6789 becomes "Samp6789.doc". Print the file, burn it to a CD,
and mail both with a cover letter to the ALJ. You can also
electronically file the proposed decision.
