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An administrative law judge is an official who presides over an adversarial administrative hearing that generally involves an individual and the government. Meaning, it involves a dispute an individual has with the government agency with regard to how the agency's policies affects them. In the case of a Social Security administrative law judge, an individual disagrees with how the rules and regulations of the Social Security Administration have affected their ability to receive disability benefits. So what does a Social Security administrative law judge do? An administrative law judge is the official who ultimately determines if you are disabled by Social Security disability guidelines. Generally, administrative law judges have more flexibility making Social Security disability medical determinations than state agency disability examiners. When you appear at your disability hearing, the administrative law judge will have familiarized himself with your disability claim. It is very likely that the judge will ask you questions with regard to your disabling condition or conditions, your work history, and how you feel your disabling condition has affected your ability to perform routine daily activities--cooking, grooming, driving, dealing with money, or a multitude of other activities involved with everyday living, including work activity. The judge may ask a lot of questions or he may have very few questions. Frankly every disability claim is different. Therefore, the administrative law judge’s questioning or lack of questioning depends upon the information contained within an individual’s disability file. Although, the administrative law judge hearing is an adversarial process, more individuals win disability benefits at the disability hearing level than any other level of the disability process. National statistics suggest that roughly sixty six percent of all individuals who appear before an administrative law judge are approved for disability. When these statistics are compared to the initial disability claim approval rate of thirty five percent, you can see how favorable your chance of winning disability benefits with an administrative law judge really are. 
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