Vanhaitsma v. Saul, No. 2:2021cv00482 - Document 10 (D. Nev. 2021)
Court Description: ORDER granting ECF No. 9 Motion to Extend Time : Filing of certified administrative record (CAR) and answer to Complaint due by 9/14/2021. Signed by Magistrate Judge Carla Baldwin on 7/12/2021. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - DRM)
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Vanhaitsma v. 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Talbert '$1,(/ 3 7$/%(57 6SHFLDO $VVLVWDQW 8QLWHG 6WDWHV $WWRUQH\ 8QRSSRVHG 0RW IRU ([W 1R FY &/% DECLARATION OF JEBBY RASPUTNIS OFFICE OF APPELLATE OPERATIONS SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION I, JEBBY RASPUTNIS, Executive Director of the Social Security Administration’s Office of Appellate Operations (OAO), declare and state as follows: 1) My office is responsible for, among other things, preparing certified copies of administrative records (CARs) for Federal court review when claimants appeal the final decisions of the Commissioner of Social Security. 2) Beginning in mid-March of 2020, the Social Security Administration (agency) restricted physical access to our buildings because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since that time, OAO has been working to overhaul, redo, refine, and streamline our business processes to continue operations and meet our mission to serve the public. Despite many challenges in transitioning to a completely new business process, we have reached and surpassed pre-pandemic levels of electronic CAR production. Much of the delay and uncertainty in the CAR production process has stemmed from how we transmit hearing recordings to our vendors, and how our vendors return completed transcripts to us. We have worked hard to refine this process as well as implementing new processes, updating vendor agreements, and making staffing changes. These included: x reworking how we transmit the audio files to our vendors from a fully in-person exchange of CDs and completed transcripts to a now fully direct access and electronic exchange of completed transcripts; x seeking additional vendor capacity; and x leveraging in-house transcription capacity by establishing a transcription cadre with updated technology and working with agency closed captioners. Page 1 of 5 3) We are now, between our vendors and our in-house efforts, able to produce more than 700 transcripts 1 on an average work week. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, we averaged 300-400 hearing transcriptions per week. 4) As we worked to transition this workload, and our external vendors, to a fully virtual process, the number of new cases filed in federal court also increased. 2 This was a direct result of the agency’s initiative to reduce the number of requests for administrative review pending before the Appeals Council, the final step of the administrative process. While we had planned for this increase, the combined effects of the pandemic-related disruptions and the increase in new court filings lead to a significant backlog in CAR preparation. However, as a result of our process improvements and increased production capacity from our contracted transcription vendors, we now have begun reducing our pending backlog. At the end of January 2021 we had 11,109 pending cases. As of June 8, 2021, we had 6,927 pending cases, representing a decrease in our backlog of 4,182 cases over the last four months. 1 Individual cases often have more than one hearing to transcribe. In the last quarter of fiscal year 2020 and the first quarter of fiscal year 2021, we averaged more than 2,257 new case receipts per month, compared to an average of 1,458 new case receipts in the last quarter of fiscal year 2019 and the first quarter of fiscal year 2020. See also Chief Justice Roberts’ 2020 Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, Appendix Workload of the Courts, available at https://www.supremecourt.gov/publicinfo/year-end/2020year-endreport.pdf (“Cases with the United States as defendant grew 16% [in FY20], primarily reflecting increases in social security cases and prisoner petitions.”) 2 Page 2 of 5 The following chart shows OAO’s receipts, dispositions 3 and pending CAR workload for the last five months of FY2021. Time Period New Court Case Receipts Dispositions Pending JAN 2021 2,636 1,767 11,109 FEB 2021 1,880 2,312 10,677 MAR 2021 1,592 2,811 9,458 APR 2021 2,169 2,876 8,751 MAY 2021 1,298 2,551 7,498 5) OAO continues to address the significant workflow fluctuations the agency has experienced since approximately March 2020. The following line graph tracks three different workflow measures since the beginning of FY2019 and how they intersect: a. Green: requests for review decided by the Appeals Council; b. Blue: new federal court cases about which the Appeals Council has been notified; and c. Gold: CARs docketed by the Office of the General Counsel (OGC). 4 3 While dispositions primarily include CARs for filing with the court, it also includes requests for remand to the ALJ for further actions, and other actions. https://www.ssa.gov/appeals/DataSets/08_National_New_Court_Cases_and_Remands.html. 4 For Appeals Council dispositions (green line) and new federal court case about which the Appeals Council has been notified (blue line), the graph is based on publicly-available data that is published quarterly. See https://www.ssa.gov/appeals/publicusefiles.html. The data for CAR docketing (gold line), is drawn from the agency’s internal case tracking systems. All data sets, while presumed valid, may change subject to updating and ongoing validation. Page 3 of 5 The graph shows the deviation from the average for each of these three workflow measures. 5 Notably, this visual representation illustrates the rapid changes that began in March 2020 through March 2021. 6) Overall, the timeframe for delivering an electronic CAR in any individual case has improved. The current average processing time is 138 days. Although we remain subject to some constraints, we continue to work on increasing productivity, and our aged-order case processing, by collaborating with our vendors and searching out and utilizing technological enhancements. We ask for continued patience as we work to increase our efficiency and production of CARs, reduce the current backlog, and address rising court case filings. 5 The averages are calculated since October 2018. By way of example, in March 2020, OGC docketed about 80% fewer CARs than average, while the Appeals Council acted on about 60% more requests for review than average. Page 4 of 5 In accordance with 28 U.S.C. §1746, I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief. Dated: June 14, 2021 /s/ _____ _ ____________________ ______________________________ yR asput uuttnis Jebby Rasputnis Page 5 of 5
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