I
have previously described how federal court judges are constantly rejecting the
decisions of Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) David Nisnewitz for repeatedly
failing to comply with the laws regarding Social Security Disability (“SSD”)
benefits. ALJ Nisnewitz continues to make the identical
errors of law year after year.
Therefore, I contended that his preference for denying disability claims
inhibits his impartial judgment, which The American Heritage Dictionary defines
as “bias."
Some of my
prior blog entries also described a class action lawsuit that was filed last
year, which accused ALJ Nisnewtz and ALJs Michael D.
Cofresi, Seymour Fier, Marilyn P. Hoppenfeld and Hazel C. Strauss (the “Queens
Five”) of bias against claimants. The
class action is pending before federal district court judge Carol Bagley Amon.
Lazo-Espinoza v. Astrue, 2012 WL 1031417 (E.D.N.Y. Mar. 27, 2012) is the
latest federal court decision involving a Nisnewitz decision. It seems that federal district court
judges are becoming just as fed up with Nisnewitz’s disdain for the law and
rights of Social Security claimant’s as are the claimants and their
representatives:
The
administrative record here demonstrates that ALJ Nisnewitz, not only initially disregarded
Plaintiff's need for a Spanish language interpreter, but he was dismissive,
rude, and intolerant. His failure
to subpoena any of Plaintiff's treating physicians, including a specialist, to
amplify the record shows a blatant disregard, not only of the legal standards,
but of his obligations as a judicial officer and the basic rights and humanity
of a vulnerable segment of our society, the disabled. This court previously noted such
intolerable conduct by ALJ
Nisnewitz. See Bailey v. Astrue, 815 F.Supp.2d 590
(E.D.N.Y.2011); Ginsberg v. Astrue, 2008 WL 3876067
(E.D.N.Y. Aug.18, 2008).
I represented the claimant
in the Bailey case, which was
reassigned to another ALJ because of Nisnewitz’s “contentiousness.” Because of the “rudeness,
dismissiveness and intolerance on the part of ALJ Nisnewitz that was not appropriate,” the court had
to reassign Lazo-Espinoza's claim to a different ALJ on remand once again.
It
seems clear to at least one federal district court judge that ALJ Nisnewitz is
unfit to hear Social Security cases.
Hopefully, Judge Amon will agree that ALJ Nisnewitz should not hear any cases
in the future.
The
Social Security Administration may think that transferring ALJ
Nisnewitz to another hearing office is the solution. Such a transfer would not resolve any of the bias issues
raised in the class action. Rather,
it would be akin to what the Catholic Church did with pedophile priests; i.e., they transferred the offenders and
naively hoped the problem would go away.
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