Stephen R. VENTURA v. Donna E. SHALALA, Secretary of Health and Human Services. Stephen Ventura, Appellant

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• recognizing that “[t]he right to an unbiased ALJ is particularly important because of the active role played by ALJs in social security cases”
• holding that a plaintiff was entitled to a new hearing before another ALJ in light of the first ALJ’s “coercive” line of questioning
• finding that ALJ’s “continuous interference” with introduction of evidence regarding claimant’s conditions violated obligation to develop the record “fully and fairly”
• finding that ALJ exhibited bias because “[t]he ALJ’s questioning of the claimant was coercive and intimidating, and totally irrelevant to whether claimant was disabled.”
• noting that, by raising the bias issue at the administrative hearing, the plaintiff in that case abided by the procedures set forth in the regulations regarding disqualification of ALJs
• holding the ALJ was biased due to “offensive and unprofessional conduct”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).