Social Security judges must resolve 500 to 700 disputes per year. A watchdog says that might be too many.

Loucas, an Association of Administrative Law Judges’ regional vice president, agreed, saying “a favorable decision will more likely than not, with other things being equal, be issued more quickly. … The judge does not have to meticulously take his time, her time, to go through the 1,000 pages to find the information that is needed to support a favorable decision … the person’s not going to appeal it. The government’s not going to appeal it. So, no one’s going to look under the covers to see did you do a good enough job finding the evidence to support this decision.”