Lawsuit Alleges Bias in Queens Disability Cases

April 15, 2011

An April 12th New York Times article focuses on a lawsuit alleging that the five Queens judges who hear appeals of Social Security disability cases have been biased against applicants, many of whom are poor or immigrants, and have systematically denied benefits to the disabled by making legal and factual errors. Queens Legal Services (a program of Legal Services NYC) Deputy Director Ann Biddle, who represents several of the plaintiffs in their efforts to obtain disability benefits is quoted. Update: NY1's Angela Chen followed up with Ann and several of the clients for a piece which aired on April 15th.

Click here to watch the video from NY1.

From the New York Times piece:

Mr. Frye said the adversarial tone cited in the lawsuit was common in disability offices, and “part of the process.”

But federal judges who have reviewed the Queens cases have disagreed. In
remanding a 2005 case, Judge Dora L. Irizarry said the transcript
offered “a study in combative questioning, which hampered the
truth-seeking process.”

In that case, Joan Ginsberg, who had worked for years as a freelance
proofreader and copy editor, sought benefits after her doctor diagnosed
chronic fatigue syndrome. But the Queens judge, Mr. Nisnewitz, said he
was skeptical of the doctor’s credentials and refused to speak with the
physician, even though judges’ responsibilities include contacting
medical experts.

“I’m not going to call her,” he said in the hearing. “I don’t make calls. I don’t do that.”

One plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit, Dhanasar Raman — a native of
Guyana who worked for 26 years in a factory that made machinery to
produce zippers — says he cannot walk straight or sleep through the
night. His neck involuntarily twists to the side because of cervical
dystonia, he said, and he has seizures.

Judge Strauss denied him benefits, saying Mr. Raman was not credible
because he had not sought physical therapy or narcotics for pain — even
though his doctors did not prescribe them. “She disrespected me,” Mr.
Raman said in an interview. “When you talk to her, she doesn’t want to
hear anything.”

Mr. Raman’s lawyer, Ann Biddle, said that Queens administrative law
judges often discriminated against the foreign-born, who make up roughly
half of the borough’s population. Translators are provided at the
hearings, but lawyers say the judges sometimes hold applicants’ limited
English against them.

“There’s an inappropriate focus on the fact that they’re foreign-born
and how they came to this country, and a real skepticism that they were
able to survive without becoming fluent in English,” said Ms. Biddle,
the deputy director of Queens Legal Services, which represents several
of the plaintiffs but is not a party to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit said Judge Strauss made several errors in her ruling: She
improperly discounted the treating physician’s conclusions and ignored
the severity of Mr. Raman’s muscular problems.

The Queens judges “make the same legal and factual errors again and
again,” Mr. Walden, the lawyer, said. “It is routine and systemic, and
it shows you the fix is in.”

Read the full article at www.nytimes.com.

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